No Such Thing As Psychics
by redwolffclaw
Summary: 1st in Moonlighting Series: Shawn's life is about to be changed, literally forever, by a mysterious doctor. Meanwhile, vampire Private Investigator Mick St. John has to find Shawn before he does anything crazy. Spoilers through late season 6 for Psych and total series of Moonlight. COMPLETE. Sequels are 12:04 Wake up Call, and Out of the Past & Into the Fire.
1. Waking the Undead

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ok, I originally had this in Crossovers but one of my readers convinced me to put it in the regular stories section. You honestly don't need to know anything about Moonlight to read this, I explain as I go and I was told it is more fun if you don't know about Moonlight when you read it. So I am re-posting it here. The Sequel "Out of the Past and Into the Fire" is already out with Two chapters and I will post it here as well when I add the third. I hope you psychos enjoy the story.**

* * *

**"No Such Thing As Psychics"**

**Story 1 in the "Moonlighting" series**

**By Redwolffclaw**

**(I do not own anything having to do with Psych or Moonlight or any other fictional tv characters)**

**Chapter 1- "Waking the Undead"**

"Damn it!" Shawn swore as he weaved in and out of LA traffic. "Jules is gonna _kill_ me if I am late again."

He was going to be at least ten minutes late as it was but dealing with more Yahoos on the road than he was used to in Santa Barbara was really trying his nerves. He glanced at himself in his rear view mirror, disappointed he had to wear a helmet tonight. He had gotten his short brown hair perfect this morning, but if Juliet found out he didn't put it on, she would have Carlton Lassiter, her partner, shoot him. Carlton had made it very clear he'd have no problem with that scenario.

Shawn smiled. It was going to be a great night. He had asked Jules out to a fancy restaurant in LA after finishing up catching a killer and bringing him back to Santa Barbara for processing. _"Might as well have some fun while psychically solving a murder." _he had said and he was pretty sure Gus wouldn't mind if he used his credit card for such a good cause.

He had also promised Juliet that this was going to be his last ride on his bike. He had a plan to go car shopping with Gus this next Tuesday and to pick out something sensible but sexy, and definitely the color green. He might even make it their company car. An actual "Psychmobile."

As he was momentarily lost in thought, an SUV ran a red light and sped right in his path. Shawn's eyes widened in terror a second before he instinctively laid the bike on its side to slow it down.

The impact wasn't as hard as Shawn thought it was going to be, but it was hard enough. His shoulder hit the passenger door of the vehicle leaving a Shawn sized dent in it. The pain momentarily caused him to black out.

When he came to he was laying on the pavement with a paramedic standing over him. "Sir! Sir! Can you hear me?" Shawn looked at the guy's name tag, Stu.

"Yeah. Did anyone get the license number of that guy on the motorcycle?"

Stu the paramedic looked puzzled, "But sir you were..."

"It was a joke." Shawn shook his head. No one had a sense of humor. He was going to tell the guy that, but he started to feel very dizzy. "What's wrong with me? I just hit my shoulder..."

Stu shook his head, "You lost a lot of blood, the mirror on the door cut you as you hit it and it left a large gash on your arm. We're taking you to the hospital. "

"I uh..." Is all Shawn got out. Lifting his head slightly, he saw the paramedic look closer at his arm and the pool of blood spreading from it. "That's not supposed to happen…" he said groggily as his eyes rolled in the back of his head and his head hit the pavement.

As he was blacking out he heard Stu say, "Emergency! He is going into shock!"

* * *

Shawn opened his eyes. It was night and he was alone in a hospital room. His arm hurt badly and he could barely move. "Aw, God." He wined as he tried to adjust his position. He expected to see Juliet or someone waiting by his bedside when he woke up but his room was empty and with the exception of a couple tiny lights over the bed it was dark.

Looking at the white board containing his patient information, he saw that his doctor was named Dr. Grey. Shawn would have giggled at the name and what TV show it implied except for the fact that got freaked out by Patrick Dempsey, and didn't feel like going there right now. The board also said he was under observation and could not receive visitors at the time. "Well, that explains why Juliet and Gus are not here." He said to himself. His dad must not be at the hospital yet because he knew: A. Hospitals usually make exceptions for immediate family to visit… and B. His father Henry Spencer could make them let him in just by claiming it was police business.

He glanced around his bed and saw that he had two IV's one was pumping blood, the other was pumping morphine. "Dad better let me keep the pain killers this time." His father had a habit of pulling pain medication when he figured it wasn't worth it.

One of the machines next to him started to beep. He looked and saw the blood bag was almost empty. Apparently he lost a lot of it from his arm wound and saw that he had gotten other smaller cuts from the road. It was less than a minute before a male doctor walked into the room with a cart. Shawn could see it was one of those refrigerated carts for blood deliveries.

"So, Patch Adams, are you going to rub my toes and sing me to sleep?" Shawn smirked in his charming way. The man ignored him. He loomed over the cart for a moment, seemingly making some sort of decision. Eventually he reached in, took a new bag of blood out, and approached Shawn's bed.

Despite the psychic's witty attempts at conversation and asking how long he had been there, the doctor stayed silent as he attached the new blood bag to Shawn's IV. and made sure everything was connected before he started the blood drip. Shawn sighed, "Well thank you for the great conversation. You really do have a wonderful bedside manner."

Shawn's comment seemed to get a reaction out of the man. He turned around, looked at him and cryptically said, "You will be fine now." The doctor then pushed his cart through the door and out of the room with no further explanation.

"Okay, sufficiently creepy. I am impressed." Shawn sighed and laid his head back down. He looked over at the new blood bag. His observant nature instantly zeroed in on the difference between this bag and the other bag of blood he had been getting. This one had a different label and did not specify blood type or hospital of origin. "What the..." He was about to press the call button when a burning pain shot through his arm and an instant later he could not move.

Shawn's head fell back and monitors around him started beeping all at once. He suddenly couldn't breathe and he started to seize. Nurses ran into the room followed by doctors. Shawn wanted to tell them about the blood bag but he was beyond communicating now as they were trying to shove a tube down his throat to get him oxygen. Shawn fought to stay conscious but his eyes started to close. Before they did he saw the heart monitor attached to him, and it was flat lined.

* * *

Shawn came awake slowly. It took him a couple minutes to realize he was still in the hospital and by the darkness outside the window it was night. His head hurt very badly and he was incredibly thirsty. "How long have I been out...?"

He tried to sit up and realized his mistake, "OW." Shawn found out just how stiff he was. "I guess quite a while." He carefully propped himself up on his elbows and glanced around the room noticing that he was no longer alone.

His dad was sitting in a chair close to the bed while Gus was lying down on the very uncomfortable looking bench seat near the window. Shawn was honestly happy they were there and he cleared his throat to hold back any 'unmanly' emotions.

Henry stirred at the noise Shawn was making so he decided to stay still. _How can they sleep with the light on anyway, don't they turn these things off at night? _Shawn thought. The memory of what happened earlier snapped back into his mind and he immediately turned to see the blood bag hanging next to his bed. It looked like the regular hospital blood bags but was close to empty.

A nurse walked in only a few minutes later and her presence woke both Gus and Henry. "Oh, I am sorry Mr. Guster, Mr. Spencer. I didn't mean to wake you but I have to refill Shawn's transfusion bag. They seem to be emptying pretty quickly."

Being the subject of the conversation they all turned their attention to Shawn who gave a feeble wave.

"Shawn" Henry said exasperated, "How long have you been up?"

"Only long enough to know I really really want a pineapple smoothly." He grinned, trying to look cute. When his father gave him a disapproving stare Shawn relented. "…or maybe just some water." He said it a croaky voice.

The nurse smiled and turned towards the light switch, "Let's get this on so I can see you better to change out the blood."

Shawn cocked his head and noticed the light switch was on the off position. "Where is all that light coming from then?" he puzzled just before going blind as the overhead fluorescents flickered on.

"GAH! Who turned on the sun?" Yelled Shawn as he covered his face with his hands, "Someone fire the electric guys! They mistakenly installed 2000 watt bulbs!"

"They are called electricians Shawn, and I am sure there is no such thing as a 2000 watt light bulb." Gus corrected.

Through his hands a muffled voice came out, "I've heard it both ways!"

Henry, being the rational one turned off the light and went over to Shawn's side. He looked at the nurse, "Is being this light sensitive normal?"

The nurse, a bit shocked by the experience, shook her head, "It could be a side effect of his seizures. We think that it may have been an accidental dose of something other than his blood type and he had a strong reaction to it. We were lucky to save him."

Blinking the spots out of his eyes, Shawn looked up at his dad, "Where is the doctor that gave me that blood dose? It wasn't the regular hospital blood pack was it?"

"What did he look like?" the nurse asked while she connected the blood bag, concern was very evident in her voice.

"About 5'11", medium length brown hair, slight facial hair, kind of a young Vigo Mortensen in a hospital garb. I caught a very creepy vibe from him."

Gus narrowed his eyes and asked, "Christopher Walken creepy or Crispin Glover creepy?"

"Javier Bardem from 'No Country for Old Men' creepy." Shawn widened his eyes at Gus, who returned the look back to him. Javier Bardem was the ultimate on their creepy-scale. It was a very intricate and detailed chart and going straight to the top was almost unheard of and saved for individuals such as Yin, Yang, and the guy who delivers papers to their office.

"Mr. Spencer," The nurse interrupted, "we do have a doctor matching that description working here, but he didn't show up for work today. I will inform hospital Security immediately." With that she ran out the door leaving a confused trio of guys in her wake.

"How are you feeling now Shawn?" Henry asked kneeling next to the bed.

Shawn pouted, "Still thirsty and she forgot to give me my pineapple smoothie."

Gus went over to the sink and poured some water in a cup, "We will get you a smoothie later, right now you just need to rest." He handed the cup to Shawn who drank it in almost one gulp and almost instantly spit it all back out.

Shawn went into a painful coughing spasm, gasping for breath. "Shawn you shouldn't drink it so fast! Breathe kid!" Henry patted Shawn on the back.

*Gasp* "What..." *Cough* *Cough* "What was in that water?" *Cough* "Tasted horrible."

"We'll try to get you some purified water once the nurse comes back. Take it easy next time kid." Scolded Henry.

Catching his breath Shawn realized something, he'd been using his arm, and it had stopped hurting. "Must be the pain killers. He remembered the paramedic say something about why he had to be given so much blood_..._ _"You lost a lot of blood, the mirror on the door cut you as you hit it and it left a large gash on your arm."_ Turning his attention to his bandages Shawn started looking and poking at them.

Gus slapped Shawn's hand away. "Shawn, don't do that! They told us they finally got you to stop bleeding!"

Shawn gave him a glare and said, "I just want to see how bad it is." and continued to mess with the gauze only to have his hand slapped again, this time by his father.

He was about to glare and make a witty comeback when a doctor walked in the door. The doctor noticed him messing with the gauze. "Please don't touch that Mr. Spencer, can I call you Shawn?"

Shawn nodded, "And I believe you have already met my dad Henry, and my business partner Slim McPickens."

Gus jumped in before the doctor could greet him as "Slim." "Burton Guster sir."

The doctor nodded and continued, "I am sure you must be confused about what has all happened to you Shawn." The young man nodded, "Well, you've been here for two days already. You were in a high speed accident on your motor cycle and you collided with an SUV. Your right side smashed against the driver's side door and a piece of the mirror cut into your brachial artery. The artery pumps major amounts of blood to your arm and you ended up almost bleeding out on the street. Luckily the ambulance got there when it did. As it was we have had to give you multiple blood transfusions in order to stabilize you." The doctor pointed to the bag connected to Shawn. "Unfortunately it looks like someone came in and gave you the wrong blood. We're still trying to figure out who this person on our staff was but security has been notified and is on the lookout for the doctor matching the description you gave."

"So what you're telling me is that some random guy came in and was able to hook Shawn up to God knows what and was just able to walk out?" Henry angrily interjected. "How do we know my son is safe here?"

The doctor held up his hands in a pacifying gesture, "I assure you Mr. Spencer, we have everyone we can spare working on finding who did this. For now, let's just worry about how Shawn is doing."

"How long have I been out?" Shawn groaned as he tried to push himself higher on the bed so he could sit up. The light was really hurting his head and everything seemed to be a bit too loud.

The doctor moved closer and Shawn was finally able to see his name tag. Doctor Grey. "It has been more than a day. You are probably going to experience weakness for a while. We're still trying to assess the damage to your body."

As the Doctor approached, Shawn caught a scent he could not recognize. "What cologne are you wearing doctor?"

"I'm not wearing any cologne Shawn. I did however just come from the lab and when you are down there it does have a slight scent."

Shawn put his hands to his head and closed his eyes. Without realizing why, he took a long sniff. He suddenly saw the doctor talking with someone, a man. He couldn't distinguish any features though. "You talked to someone about what was found in the blood I was given." It was like Shawn could see what he smelled. Not unlike how he uses his photographic memory but he had never seen the lab at all and was almost able to describe it.

"That is correct Mr. Spencer, err... Shawn. I heard you were psychic but it is very impressive seeing it in person."

Gus and Henry looked knowingly at each other but stayed silent.

"So what is the consensus?" Shawn said putting fake sadness into his voice. "Will I lose the arm doc? Don't sugar coat it. It can take the truth!"

"No, you won't lose the arm." The doctor said shaking his head. He started to remove the bandages, "You will have to have physical therapy once it heals..."

As the last of the bandages came off the doctor hesitates and looks at Shawn's forearm with a mixture of puzzlement and terror. "This can't be…."

The three men saw the doctor's face and reacted in their own special ways, Gus started crying, Shawn screamed like a girl, and Henry asked, "What? Is it infected?"

Dr. Grey shook his head in disbelief, ignoring the cries and screams to answer Henry's question.

"Mr. Spencer. There is nothing wrong with his arm."

* * *

Catching a familiar scent, Mick St. John sighed as he opened the door to his apartment. It had been another long day and he was looking forward to taking Beth, his girlfriend of four years, out for the night. Being a vampire, he wouldn't have anything himself but they were used to it and he did enjoy going out for a bit.

As he entered the apartment the scent grew stronger. "What are you doing here Josef?" Mick said with unhidden annoyance. The other vampire had a bad habit of turning up and drinking all his blood, even though he claimed he did not like the type. "I have plans to take Beth out tonight and I have to get going."

Josef Kostan, a very old vampire and Mick's best friend smirked and rose from the chair he sat in. He had an easy smile that could charm anyone but Mick was used to it and continued to scowl despite the display. "You know I'm all for nookie as much as the next vampire but we have a problem." His expression changed and became uncharacteristically serious. "It is a rogue Mick."

Mick froze and really looked at Josef. The look of concern on his face was odd because in the years Mick had known him he was hardly ever this concerned, with anything. Rogues were serious business in the vampire world. Mick took a deep breath. "How many people has he killed?"

Josef stood up and paced. "The problem is he hasn't killed anyone! He is turning them and _they_ are killing people. We put down three so far. We were able to save one before he went feral, caught him early." Josef took a swig of the glass blood he was holding. "He was able to give us some information about what happened. He was injured, dying in a hospital in town when he said someone came into his room and that was the last thing he knew. Due to his injury he was getting transfusions which helped him not go crazy and eat everyone. I checked the other three we put down and it was the same thing. All dying in hospital."

Mick ran his fingers through his hair and paced the floor. "How many more do you think there are?"

"From what I can tell only one so far. Miraculous recoveries are kind of a rarity, especially ones where major wounds heal overnight." Josef pulled out an envelope and handed it to Mick. "Here is the information I have on the guy. While you go find him, I'm going to go after the rogue."

"Really, huh…" Mick raised his eyebrows.

"Is there something you would like to share with the class smart alec?" Josef gave his friend an incredulous look.

"Nothing, just remembering how you said you were a lover and not a fighter. I'm just surprised you're not going to hire someone to find the rogue for you." Mirth dripped from Mick's words.

"I did hire someone, _you_. But your problem is that you cannot be in two places at once, and I have to get my hands dirty." Josef looks at his hands. "I just got my cuticles done too."

Shaking his head and looking at the paper with the information Mick wondered aloud, "Do you think we'll be able to get to him in time?"

"Maybe, but it has been almost two days. So we can guarantee he is experiencing horrible blood lust by now. We have to hope his will is strong enough, or that he is the most stubborn person in the universe."

"So, if he can't be saved it is a cleanup mission? You need me to put him down too?"

"Use your judgment, if you believe he hasn't gone off the deep end bring him in, otherwise yes, you will have to put him down. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a rogue to catch." He paused for a moment, "Rogue hunter. Sounds sexy don't you think?" the smirk was back on Josef's face. "Take care and don't get dead." With that piece of advice, Josef walked out of the apartment, setting the empty glass of blood on the table before doing so.

Mick grabbed a glass of blood for himself and paced his apartment. He would have to call Beth and cancel. She'd understand though. She knew how dangerous rogues could be because the last time he had one for a case she was right beside him. _She would probably want to come with me._ He thought to himself but he didn't know how dangerous this case would be and was scared she would get hurt. He took another look at the name and medical description on the paper Josef handed him. It wasn't much but was enough to find him in the hospital. "Shawn Spencer- 5'10", 172 lbs, brown hair, hazel eyes."


	2. One Step Behind

**Chapter 2- One Step Behind**

After the Doctor's bombshell announcement the hospital room went completely silent for at least two minutes.

"What do you mean nothing is wrong?" Henry said tentatively. "You mean the stitches look good, right?"

"No Mr. Spencer..." Dr. Grey said disbelievingly, "There is _nothing_ wrong. There is no cut, but the stitches still seem to be here. They just are not stitching anything."

Shawn looked and sure enough, it looked like his arm had been given fifteen stitches for no reason. Without turning his head and giving himself away he checked the parts of him that were road-rashed from his skid. There were no cuts there either, not even scars or bruises. Basically no evidence he had been in a crash at all besides a freaked out doctor and a destroyed motorcycle.

Dr. Grey turned and addressed Shawn. "I can't explain it, I stitched up your arm myself. Y-you were bleeding..." He grabbed the chart and started reading frantically.

Henry looked at his son's arm for himself. "Kid, do they hurt?"

"Not really." Shawn sat up a bit and briefly locked eyes with Gus. His best friend had not moved from where he stood by the window and was flicking his eyes back and forth between Shawn's arm and the doctor with a worried expression.

Putting the chart back down Dr. Grey excused himself and rushed out of the room without another word to the shocked men.

Another uncomfortable silence descended on the room. Usually Shawn would break them with a snarky retort or a funny observation but Gus could see that his friend was freaking out. When Shawn was not talking, that was not a good thing no matter what Carlton Lassiter says. Shawn was completely lost in his thoughts, reliving every single moment he was conscious in the past twenty four hours that would explain anything about what was going on.

Gus was also freaking out, but in his own way, the stating the obvious and repeating himself way. "Shawn, you just healed from a life threatening wound over night! How is that even medically and physically possible?" Gus looked at Henry for help.

"I think I know how." Henry interjected. "The doctor made a mistake. Lots of patients and an overworked doctor, it could and does happen."

"But that doesn't make any sense! He lost a lot of blood! We both saw what he looked like when we got in here after he had the seizure." Gus pointed out.

"Listen, all this could have been because he was given blood when he didn't need it and was probably given the wrong blood type." Henry looked at Shawn who was still silent. "SHAWN!" Shawn jumped and looked up at his father. "What did you remember about your accident?"

"Dad, can we not do this right now?" Shawn snapped, "If I am okay, I just want to get out of here and back to the SBPD ASAP." He began to un-wrap his arm from the now useless bandages. Shawn saw there was blood on them but he hid it from the other men in the room. "I don't want to have them charging you for services I'm not using and I want to see Jules."

"Shawn you're over reacting. We _can_ see that something happened to you and you still need to sit tight until they can figure out what it was." Henry stood up from Shawn's side and paced the room. "Why is it that every time you end up in the hospital something weird happens?" Henry sighed. "Why don't we get some sleep and I'll call Juliet and Carlton tomorrow to tell them what is going on."

Shawn fell back into bed. "Okay fine dad, but when I get out of here, I want my smoothie. My mouth is craving a plethora of delicious flavor."

All three men settled down for the rest of the night but only two got any sleep. Shawn did try but he kept feeling too hot and uncomfortable in the hospital bed. Plus it was way too loud. Every footstep and machine beep seemed to resonate in his skull. By the time morning came he was incredibly grumpy and his head hurt.

* * *

Around 8am when breakfast arrived, Dr. Grey walked in. Shawn noticed the bags were almost gone from under his eyes and he was wearing cleaner clothes. He had to have gone home and gotten some rest after the shock of thinking he screwed up really bad on a patient. Gus and Henry were just rubbing the sleep from their eyes and sat up as the doctor came through the door. The nurse started handing out trays to each of them. Shawn's looked considerably less appetizing than his father's and Gus' but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Gus immediately put on his patented "Hey There" face and made eyes at the nurse. Henry rolled his eyes and dug into the food, completely used to this behavior from his son's friend.

Shawn sniffed his plate. Broth, lime Jell-O and milk. "Liquid diet, nice." Shawn pouted. He was suddenly not very hungry at all. He pushed the tray away from him and waited for the doctor to finish talking to the departing nurse.

After a minute Dr. Gray approached the group. "Gentlemen, I want to apologize for my behavior earlier. I've checked with the other hospital staff and the EMTs that picked Shawn up from his accident and they did say his arm was severely injured. I can't explain why the injury is no longer there but I can assure you that it did happen and I did not accidentally stitch up Shawn's arm for no reason. We would like to keep Shawn for a day or so to run some tests to see what happened to give him such a miraculous recovery."

"Yeah, sorry I am not up for tests." Shawn said as he started to get out of bed. "Gus here would like some tests though. Maybe you can figure out why his head is so magically delicious."

"Stop comparing my head to Lucky Charms Shawn." Gus glared at his friend.

"Shawn, don't be an idiot." Henry admonished his son, "There could be complications later on."

Shawn started to pull out the IVs carefully. He knew from experience yanking them out really hurts. He had his dad and a poisoning, murdering lesbian to thank for that one. The doctor raised a finger in Shawn's direction but decided not to argue. "The only complication is that somehow overnight I became Wolverine and I have no idea how it happened."

"We will need you to sign some forms but if you insist we can't keep you here against your will Shawn." Dr. Grey explained.

"Dad, could you give Jules a call. I don't know what happened to my phone and I will be _damned_ if I have to spend two hours sitting in between you guys in the truck." Shawn rubbed his hand where he had pulled out the IVs, he expected a lingering stinging sensation, but there was nothing. Casually glancing at his hand he noticed the hole where the IV was inserted was also no longer noticeable. Shawn nervously looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. By the way the others were still talking he figured they hadn't. "Dad, on second thought I'll call Jules." Henry handed him his phone.

Shawn turned his back to Henry and Gus who immediately stopped eating. "SHAWN!" Both shouted at the same time. After getting his attention Gus pointed to his backside and Henry said, "Son, you're in a hospital gown."

Mortified, Shawn ran his bare backside into the bathroom. "Doctor... could you mind bringing me some clothes?" He yelled through the door.

* * *

"Miraculous recovery! Yes, that is what they said." Shawn strutted out of the hospital, pausing to rub his eyes as he stepped into the sunlight. Juliet, Gus and Henry were at his side and a phone to his ear. "Yes mom. I'll remember to take care of myself... Okay, love you too." With a smile Shawn hung up the phone. "Dad, Mom says Hi."

"That is nice of her." Henry said with a twinkle in his eye. He still had a thing for his ex-wife even though they had been divorced for many years.

Shawn continued, "She also said that Andy Worhol wants his curtains back."

"What?" Henry looked at Shawn confused, before realizing where he was looking. His shirt. It was mostly yellow with bright designs on it. "There's nothing wrong with my shirt Shawn! It is a styling and perfectly nice shirt." Henry tended to get defensive when Shawn made fun of his clothes.

Juliet stepped forward before Henry got any more indignant about the shirt and turned towards Shawn, "Good to see your humor is still intact Shawn." She took his hand. She had driven down from Santa Barbara to pick him up. He sounded great on the phone which was a surprise since the last time she had seen him he was covered in blood and on a gurney. She had cried for a day straight but was not family and was unable to see him. She had to return to work the second day. Chief Vick and Carlton had made sure she was okay, but only the Chief had asked about Shawn. Juliet knew her partner Carlton did not care for Shawn's methods but did not actually hate him. He just liked to put on a show.

As Shawn leaned in for a kiss, Juliet put a finger up to his lips. "I have something for you." She smiled and reached into her vehicle only to pull out a large pineapple smoothie.

Shawn eagerly held his hands out and took the Smoothie. "You complete me!" Shawn said happily, then turned to Juliet who finally let him kiss her. "I love you too Jules." She smiled in triumph, having actually been able to surprise her psychic boyfriend.

Shawn was incredibly hungry. He had only been able to drink a small amount of water and no food since before his accident over two days ago. It wasn't for lack of trying. After the doctor left he had turned to his food tray and attempted to eat some pudding. He doesn't know how they made pudding so disgusting but he figured it was just because it was hospital food. Salivating over the ambrosia in his hand he said goodbye to his Dad and Gus before getting in Juliet's car. He took a long sip on the straw sticking out of his smoothie. He managed to hide his gagging from Juliet who was really proud she had gotten him something he really liked... unfortunately it was also the worst pineapple smoothie he had ever tasted. He looked at the logo on the cup as they pulled out onto the highway to head home, and swore he would never eat at that place ever again.

* * *

Mick St. John pulled into the hospital parking lot around 11am. He was not a happy camper. He had tried last night to be able to get into the hospital and see Shawn Spencer but was turned away due to not being a family member. He eventually had to return home and get some sleep. He had gotten up as soon as he could and rushed over to see if he could get into see him today.

As he got out of his car he noticed a group of people leaving the hospital. A young man on a phone was being escorted out by a woman and two men, one white and older, one black. The woman handed the young man a large cup and Mick smiled at the gesture because he had never seen a full grown man's face light up so much over a beverage. The couple kissed and got into their vehicle. The other two were still talking as Mick passed by them. The old man was arguing with the black man, who smelled oddly of Lavender, about who would drive.

Shaking his head he headed into the hospital, only to be greatly disappointed to learn that Shawn Spencer was discharged no more than Ten minutes earlier on his own accord.

"Is there any way you could tell me which town he was going to?" Mick showed the nurse his Private Investigator badge.

"I cannot divulge that information sir." the nurse said stubbornly, "But I can tell you that the Santa Barbara police called here every day to see how he was doing."

"Thank you very much." Mick hurried out of the hospital and put his sunglasses on.

Once behind the wheel he banged his head on it. It was going to take him a couple hours to drive to Santa Barbara and on a sunny day like this it was going to be miserable and almost impossible. Too much sun could kill a vampire but it didn't immediately burst them into flames as the movies love to portray. He wondered how Shawn was going to fare, would he know enough to get into a trunk or cover up? Were the police the ones transporting him? Was he a criminal? Mick hated running into situations half cocked so he figured some research was in order. Josef would not be up yet so he could not really call and tell him what was going on. Plus he also had to figure out where this guy even lived. Speeding out of the parking lot, Mick headed home to get some clothes that covered him up better and to get his lap top for the research hoping he would not be too late again.


	3. Chilling Revelations

**Chapter 3- "Chilling Revelations"**

By the time Shawn and Juliet pulled up in front of Shawn's apartment he was in such a bad way that Juliet regretted taking her boyfriend out of the hospital in the first place. About half an hour into the ride, Juliet had looked over at Shawn and noticed he was sweating so badly that his shirt was almost soaked through. Shawn looked incredibly uncomfortable and constantly shielded his eyes. As soon as she turned on the air conditioning he visibly relaxed, "Thanks Jules." Shawn sighed as he sank lower into the passenger seat.

It wasn't long before even the air conditioner was not working. Shawn groaned and took off his shirt. He was glad he was wearing shorts or his pants would have come off too and as sexy as that sounded, he really wasn't in the mood right now.

"Shawn are you alright? You look like you are running a fever." Juliet gave Shawn a concerned look.

Panting but not willing to have her worry about him, he put on his best smirk, "I am just too hot for my shirt Jules. It just cannot take the awesomeness that is me." He gestured to his torso.

Juliet knew Shawn enough to know he was hiding his discomfort. "You feel like lying down in the back? We still have a ways to go and it will get you out of the sun."

Giving in, Shawn agreed and they pulled onto the turn ramp and headed into a gas station. Shawn readied the back seat while Juliet used the little girls' room. He was just about to step in when a group of men approached the vehicle. Shawn instinctively turned around when he heard multiple footfalls approaching him. There were four guys, all with tattoos, all with dangerous looks on their faces, all had their eyes on the half naked, seemingly helpless dude who had his car wide open for the taking.

"Yo man." The first one stepped forward towards Shawn who had backed up as far as he could, a natural avoider of physical confrontation. "Nice ride."

"Hey there dudes." Shawn put on his best smile, "Nice tats. I left mine at home or we would totally match."

The gangster continued not sure if he was just insulted or not. "You mind if we use your car homes?"

Shawn blinked in the afternoon sun and wiped the sweat from his face. "Seriously?" He said through squinted eyes, "Does that line ever work for you guys? Does someone just give over their car because you walk up and ask?" Shawn feigned surprise. "Wow, if I knew it was that easy I would have done it a while ago rather than fork out so much money for a new ride."

One of the bigger guys, the muscle Shawn figured, stepped closer to him. "You shouldn't be such a wise ass right now man. We could really mess you up."

Not able to stop himself from speaking out of fatigue, grumpiness and sheer spite Shawn shot back with, "You mean you could make me look like you?"

A fist hit his face an instant later. Then a fist hit his gut. Rage Shawn could not suppress boiled up inside him. He went from bending over in pain to bringing up his right arm in an uppercut to the guy's chin. That guy had to have flown Ten feet backwards.

Disbelief covered the faces of the guy's three friends. Shawn stood upright glaring at the confused men. "I would really get the hell out of here before my girlfriend shows up. She is meaner than I am, and she is armed."

The gangsters almost fell all over themselves. Glancing back a few times as they picked up their dazed friend and scurried to their car. Shawn made sure he was alone before making a pained face, hopping up and down and shaking his knuckles which hurt from the impact with the guy's skull. "The Catch, one! Gangsters Zip!" Shawn said using his super hero name. His victory was short lived as a splitting pain shot through his head. Was it him or did the sun just get 50 times brighter. Wincing, he climbed into the back seat and curled up into a ball.

Shawn's hand had already stopped hurting by the time Juliet returned but his headache was worse. Juliet could tell Shawn was still sick, but was too damn stubborn to admit it, she knew pushing him would not work but if he got any worse she would head to the Santa Barbara hospital instead of his apartment.

"Hey Jules." Shawn groaned. Thinking something was wrong Juliet spun around only to see Shawn with a small smile on his face. "You are so Driving Miss Daisy right now."

Rolling her eyes and turning back around Juliet sighed, "That doesn't make any sense Shawn..."

* * *

At the apartment building, Juliet got out of the vehicle first and went around to help Shawn out. He looked a little bit better, he had stopped sweating at least. "Are you sure you don't want to come over to my place for a while or have me stay here till my shift?"

Shawn could completely understand Juliet's concern but after the day he had he honestly just wanted to be left alone, "Jules, I just want to go get some sleep." He may have said it a bit harshly by the hurt look on Juliet's face. Feeling instantly like a jerk, he grabbed her hand and with his other hand put it to his temple. "The spirits are telling me that I have seemed like an ass and should apologize." Shawn grabbed Juliet gently by the shoulders and put his face close to hers. Their lips barely touching.

"I don't mean to be a hard case Jules. I am just tired. I will be fine in the morning." Shawn said quietly.

"You take care of yourself, and call me if you need anything." Juliet whispered back to him putting Shawn's phone, she had gotten from Henry that morning, into his hand.

They separated and Juliet went back to her car. Shawn gave a feeble wave as she pulled away. He walked slowly into his apartment building. Shawn was sorry to see Juliet go but he wanted some time to think. He had so many people worrying over him it was hard to be himself at the moment. He had to make so many promises today to take care of himself, to be careful, to call if he needed anything it made him feel like he was a bubble boy.

The apartment was sparsely decorated with plants that Shawn had moved around with him from each place he had lived. He moved because he had needed more room since he had a girlfriend again. Also, business was good and he could afford an actual apartment instead of living in a refurbished store.

Collapsing on his bed he shut his eyes and tried to pass out. He lay there for at least an hour before he realized he was too hot and hungry to sleep. His dad had always said that if you cannot sleep, you need to get out and do something to make yourself tired. He didn't have much food in the apartment since moving last month and he realized he didn't have his wallet. "Dad must still have it." he reasoned.

Shawn got an idea. Gus always kept emergency food in the fridge at the office. He sat up, instantly feeling dizzy and collapsing back onto the bed.

He needed something to eat badly. Sitting up slower this time, he managed to get standing without falling over. He didn't have any transportation and not wanting to call and bug anyone Shawn decided to walk. The office was only fifteen minutes away and he had always enjoyed walking, so he figured it might put him in a better mood. Grabbing his sunglasses he left the apartment and headed for the Psych office.

* * *

Shawn realized he made a mistake in walking about five minutes into it. He started to sweat again in the hot Santa Barbara sun. The sunglasses helped but damn, he felt stupid for having tried to do this alone. It was too late to call anyone because by the time they came and got him he would be at the office. Gritting his teeth he tried to walk more quickly. People were noticing the sweating and groaning guy walking down the street and it made Shawn self-conscious enough to have to wave at everyone who went by and loudly comment on the twenty mile run he had just completed. Besides some head shakes the staring people seemed to buy it.

As soon as he got to the office he saw Gus' blueberry was already there. Feeling a bit better that his friend would be there to help him out he entered the office with a little more speed than usual. His heart sank a bit when he saw that all the lights were off and no one was around. "He must have left his car here when my dad picked him up to get to the hospital and visit me." Shawn thought disappointed. Remembering what he came here for Shawn went to the fridge and sure enough he found that Gus had loaded it with snacks. Thinking back he remembered Gus say that the season finale of American Duos was on tonight. A four hour special that Gus did not want to miss, even to get something to eat. Looking at his clock Shawn saw it was almost five in the afternoon by now and the show started at 6pm. Gus had to be back by then.

Grabbing some left over jerk chicken he ate three pieces before realizing that the chicken he normally loved, and could eat at least three pounds of himself... was disgusting. Shawn grabbed some of Gus' pudding, nachos from the cupboard, cheese and crackers, soda. Nothing tasted good or got rid of the horrible craving he was feeling. Opening the fridge for one last look he leaned in to check out the food in the back when he felt something. The cold. It felt wonderful. Hesitating only a moment before grabbing everything off of the shelves, and then the shelves themselves out of the fridge. Shawn leaned into the appliance enjoying the cool air. He was suddenly glad they got a larger one when their other fridge broke down. Climbing into the fridge he figured it would be better if he shut the door and turned up the coldness, so he did. It was not comfortable per se but it let him relax like he had not relaxed in days. His last thought before passing out was wondering how mad Gus would be about the snacks.

* * *

Gus returned to the office around 5:30pm. Just enough time to set up the snacks, go get Shawn and have a relaxing night watching his favorite show. When Gus walked up to the door he found that it was unlocked and there were lights on inside. Shaking his head Gus thought, "Shawn must already be here. I hope the stubborn ass didn't walk."

As he entered it was evident that a food tornado had happened or Shawn got hungry and took a bit from every single food item in the office. Angry, Gus walked closer to the refrigerator and noticed even the shelves were out of it. "Shawn! Shawn!" Gus shouted. Gus squinted at the scene. He wasn't as good at noticing things as Shawn but he did think that this was not right. Shawn was an inconsiderate snot every once and a while but he would never do anything like this and not be around waiting to give some kind of impossible explanation for why he did something so stupid. Stepping up to the fridge he carefully pulled open the door. A rush of cold air came cascading out. Cold vapor blocked his view for a second before he realized Shawn's dead body was inside the fridge.

A high pitched girlish scream came out of Gus as he backed up to the far wall. "Oh God SHAWN!" Someone had killed him and stuffed him into the fridge! "What if the killer is still here?" Gus thought terrified.

Not wanting to look at his dead best friend, he inched his way along the wall, eyes turned away from the ghastly sight... until he heard a cough. His eyes were instantly on Shawn. He was stirring in the fridge and moaned a bit. It was not a painful moan. Gus knew Shawn's painful moans by now. He had seen his friend get hurt more times than he could count. This was his "Five more minutes Gus." moan.

Anger again replaced the relief he had from realizing his friend was not dead. He was just sleeping. Sleeping in the refrigerator!

He walked up to Shawn and shook him. "Shawn, SHAWN!"

"Wazzat... what Gus?" Shawn's right eye opened a fraction.

"What are you doing sleeping in a refrigerator Shawn?" Gus was furious.

"Trying to get some beauty rest. It feels good." Shawn mumbled.

"I thought you were dead!" Gus whined.

"Well obviously I am not!" Shawn was getting angry. He was getting the first sleep in days and Gus was completely ruining it.

"This is crazy Shawn! You can't sleep in a fridge. What is wrong with you?" Gus tried pulling on his friend's arm.

"Ok fine Gus. I will get out of the fridge! Geez you don't have to be such a nodule on an unripe pumpkin!" Shawn clamored ungracefully out of the fridge, almost falling on his face at one point because his foot caught on the edge, then almost tripped on the cheese tray. He gave Gus one last glare and stormed into Psych's bathroom.

As Shawn left the room, Gus took out his phone and immediately called Juliet.

"Detective Juliet speaking."

Gus whispered into the phone so Shawn wouldn't be able to hear. "Juliet, you need to get down here right now. There is something seriously wrong with Shawn. I found him sleeping in our refrigerator! He looks horrible. There has to be something else wrong with him."

"I will need your help convincing him to go to a hospital, you know how he is when he is sick." Gus could hear the concern in Juliet's voice.

Gus looked in the direction of the bathroom. "He is scaring me Juliet. I have never seen him act like this, and he has done a lot of weird stuff."

"Alright, I will be over as soon as I can. I will bring Lassiter just in case."

"Please hurry because..."

"GUS!" Shawn screamed from the bathroom. "GUS!"

Gus had never heard Shawn so desperate, "I have to go, please hurry!" Gus threw the phone down and ran into the bathroom.

* * *

_**Two minutes earlier:**_

Shawn stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door. He knew he shouldn't be mad at Gus. It was really creepy to be sleeping in a fridge. If he would have found Gus like that he would have tied him up, stole his blueberry and taken him to the loony bin himself. Even though the loony bin wasn't all that bad, he knew that by experience, but the concept was there.

"Juliet, you need to get down here right now." Shawn heard Gus say though the door.

"He doesn't have to shout. Maybe he wants me to hear him." Shawn speculated. "Maybe he wants me to be angry. He must not even really care about me." Shawn was sick, tired, hungry, thirsty, and pissed off. He growled and started for the door. If Gus wanted to piss him off, he did it. He reached for the handle and stopped. Gus was still on the phone with Juliet and he sounded genuinely worried.

"He is scaring me Juliet, I have never seen him act like this..."

"What am I doing!" he asked himself, while backing away from the door. "I almost wanted to kick the crap out of Gus." He groaned and clutched his stomach. "What is wrong with me?"

Shawn started to feel hot, so he walked up to the sink and splashed some cold water on his face then groped for the towel on the rack. He finished drying his face and looked up in the mirror.

He didn't recognize himself at first. He was ghostly pale, even his lips. His hazel eyes had turned white and the skin around his eyes had a reddish tint. Shawn moved closer to the mirror to get a better look, but when he did he caught a flash of something underneath his lip. He reached up and pushed it back and saw a pair of fangs underneath. They are what pushed him over the edge.

"GUS! GUS!"

Gus burst into the bathroom after hearing his best friend's cries for help. He found Shawn collapsed near the sink with his hands over his face. "Shawn! Oh my God, are you ok?" he reached down to help Shawn to his feet. He felt very hot and was extremely sweaty.

Shawn uncovered his face, "Gus, there is something wrong with me! I am hallucinating… I have to be hallucinating!" Shawn got his face directly in Gus'. "Is there something wrong with my eyes?"

Gus, used to having his personal space constantly invaded, looked at Shawn's eyes. "They have a tinge of yellow in them. You might be having a liver problem! We gotta go now Shawn!" Gus took Shawn's shoulder and started leading him out into the lobby of Psych. "Yellow? Are you going color blind? They were white a minute ago."

"The whites of your eyes are normally WHITE Shawn."

"No, no, I meant the… ARG!" Shawn fell to the floor and curled into a ball.

Giving up trying to carry him, Gus grabbed his phone and called 911 just as Juliet burst in the building followed by Carlton who had a gun drawn.

"I heard screaming what is going on…?" Juliet saw Shawn on the floor and ran to him. "Oh no Shawn what happened? Shawn speak to me?" She knelt down and took Shawn's head in her lap.

Shawn opened his eyes and looked at his girlfriend. "Jules I might be dying. When I am gone, don't forget to feed my fish."

"You don't have any fish Spencer." Carlton said confused.

"Yeah but you could buy some fish and then feed them for me." Exasperated that Shawn would still be joking at a time like this, Juliet looked up to see if Gus had the ambulance coming.

"Take deep breaths through your nose." Carlton interjected, "It will help with the nausea."

Shawn took a deep breath through his nose to calm down, it would do no good to panic and get his friends upset. As he inhaled he realized, Juliet smelled good, really good today.

"Your perfume is amazing Jules." He moved closer to her neck smelling the intoxicating aroma.

Juliet moved back a little bit from his advance. "Shawn I am not wearing perfume and you should be lying down." She pushed his head back onto her lap. "Gus what is going on?"

"I found him on the floor in the bathroom, look at his eyes." Carlton and Juliet looked at Shawn's eyes as Gus continued, "They're yellow, and he said something about hallucinating. I think he might be jaundiced, could be something happened to his liver when he got the wrong blood."

Sirens off in the distance caused them all to look out the window momentarily. When Juliet looked back down Shawn had moved up towards her face again. "This is not the time to kiss Shawn, you are really sick and need to lie still."

Shawn robotically put his head back down. Carlton squinted and got a concerned look on his face. "O'Hara… look at his eyes."

Juliet glanced exasperatedly up at her partner, "I've seen his eyes Carlton."

"Juliet LOOK at his eyes." Carlton looked very serious and only used her first name when he really wanted her attention.

Listening to her partner Juliet looked at his eyes again and something, besides the fact that they were yellow, bugged her. She had known Shawn for over six years now and he was always looking around, taking everything in, noticing everything, even if he was injured or in life or death situations. His eyes had a type of intelligence to them. "If he wasn't psychic he would still make a great detective." She had mused many times before. Now his eyes had suddenly changed. They seemed to stare with a predatory alertness that she had never seen in him before, but had seen in others. Mostly in psychopaths and serial killers. That is what triggered Carlton's nervousness. He saw it too.

She didn't have much time to muse on that fact because the EMTs had arrived and were beginning to move her away so they could get to Shawn. As he was being prepped, life returned to his eyes and he seemed scared and sad to be taken away from her. "Jules." He said weakly.

Juliet grabbed his hand. "Lassiter and I will be right behind you."

"Same for me. I will call your dad." Gus lay his hand on Shawn's arm. "See you in a bit." Gus almost teared up when Shawn raised his fist for a bump but before Gus could do anything the paramedics wheeled him out of the office.

* * *

While Carlton called the Chief and filled her in on the situation, Juliet and Gus contacted Shawn's father Henry.

"Spencer here." the gruff voice answered.

"Henry, you need to get to the hospital right away. Shawn had some kind of attack and collapsed." Juliet explained quickly.

"Geezus that kid... Ok. I am on my way."

Juliet hung up with Henry and turned to Gus. "He is on his way. Is there anything else you can tell me about Shawn?"

Gus looked guilty. He felt he should keep his mouth shut as he knew Shawn would want him to do, so Juliet would not worry any more than she already was but still…

Juliet could read Gus' look well. Putting a hand on his arm she looked at him seriously. "Gus, anything you give us now could save Shawn's life."

Carlton, who had finished talking with the Chief heard Juliet's statement and walked over to Gus. With his finger pointed in Gus' face Carlton growled, "Listen Guster, you better come clean and tell us what the hell is going on with him!"

After an angry "tisk" in Carlton's direction, Gus turned to Juliet. "All I have noticed is that he hasn't slept in days. Probably since he woke up after his seizures. I have not seen him really eat anything. It looks like he tried to here but it doesn't look like anything was really finished… and oh yeah…" Gus paused for dramatic effect, "I found him sleeping in the refrigerator!"

"Gus! You should have told me this stuff right away or at least when I picked him up this afternoon!" Juliet was extremely mad at Gus' secrecy.

"I know! But you know that Shawn can be the most stubborn guy in the world and if he found out I made a big deal about what was going on he would have been upset, and you know what happens when he gets upset. He becomes a bigger pain in the ass." Gus threw up his arms in defeat.

Carlton looked at his watch and tried to usher the two arguing friends out the door. "You can talk about this on the way to the hospital. Lets go."

They all hurried out the door to their vehicles. Gus completely forgetting to lock the door, slid into the driver's seat of his Blue Berry and slammed his hands on the steering wheel. He had been so hurt and afraid when he thought Shawn was dead. He honestly did not know what he would do without his best bud in his life. He also did not want to find out anytime soon.

* * *

**END NOTES: I know there is a similarity to something that happened in the season 5 episode "Chivalry isn't dead but Someone Is" but the funny thing is I hadn't seen that episode when I wrote that part. I just figured it would be something that Shawn said. **

**The refrigerator scene was actually the first part of this story that I wrote and I was just finishing up season 4. Weird eh?**


	4. Saving Psychics

**Chapter 4- "Saving Psychics"**

Mick St. John sat at his computer and grumbled. He had spent the last two hours on his laptop researching Shawn Spencer and had come up with two options for who he might be. He was either a consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department, or a Spanish soap opera star. Mick had figured it was the former due to the police being at the hospital to visit him, not arrest him. "At least he isn't a criminal." Mick thought. Armed with the information he had driven the two hours to Santa Barbara.

Mick started with Shawn's last known residence. Shawn had had dozens of homes in the past few years and after some ground work he found out the newest listed one was not current. In his car Mick put his head in his hands and smoothed back his hair. He was running out of time. It had been a day already since he started tracking him and Mick was astounded he kept coming up empty handed. "This never happens to me." Mick said to himself. "I never lose someone this badly."

Mick was really reluctant to contact his only other source of information on Shawn. The SBPD. He didn't want to get the police involved especially if he had to end up getting rid of Shawn for everyone's safety. This was a more likely scenario with each passing minute. Swallowing his pride and hoping for the best, Mick headed to the police station.

Once at the station, Mick wasted no time in trying to find someone who knew Shawn. A tall man with short black hair and intense blue eyes accompanied by a familiar looking young woman with pulled back blond hair rushed past him as he entered.

"O'Hara, I'll drive." He reached out to catch the keys that immediately went flying his way and both hopped into an unmarked cruiser and drove off. Mick could tell they had been partners a long time. As he glanced back he noticed his path was blocked by a giant man with a big smile and black hair.

Buzz saw a lost looking man around his age watching Juliet and Carlton rush out the door after an urgent call from Guster. The man startled as Buzz stepped toward him. "Hey there. Can I help you with anything?"

"Yeah, I need to know if you know anyone named Shawn Spencer." Mick figured if he could keep is inquiries at the lowest point in the hierarchy as possible, he might be able to get away without too many people knowing of his involvement.

A sad look came over Buzz's face. "I know Shawn, great guy. What did you need him for?"

"I need some help with a case and I was told to look for him here." Mick smiled, trying to seem personal and unthreatening.

"Well, any other day you would have come to the right place but he has been in the hospital the last few days and is recuperating. If you want I can get the Chief and she can tell you…."

Mick interrupted him. "Nah, that's ok. Say, could you tell me where to find him when he is feeling better?"

"Yeah no problem. He has his own psychic detective agency called Psych."

Even with excellent hearing Mick thought he heard the young cop wrong. "Psychic detective?"

Knowing he was probably losing Shawn business Buzz tried to win Mick back. "He has solved a ton of cases for us and on his own, it is really amazing to see him work. even if he has a unique way of doing things."

Mick smirked, "You friends?" he asked.

"Yeah, everyone here knows him. He has been with the department for over six years. Very likeable guy." Buzz looked down and sighed. "We're all pretty worried about him."

Mick's phone started to ring and he knew it was time to get going anyway. Mick put on his best PR face and shook Buzz's hand. "Well thank you for your time. Hope to see you around."

"You too. Good luck with your case man!" Buzz shouted as the man answered the phone and walked out of the station.

* * *

Mick looked at the caller ID and saw the call was from Josef. "Hey, what is up?"

"Mick, you got anything yet?" Josef cut right to the chase.

"I found out where the guy might be. No luck with his residences so I am going to head for his business. You find anything on the rogue?" Mick hopped into his car and took out his lab top. If the guy had a business, Mick hoped he had a website or even an address listed somewhere.

"See here's the thing…" Josef hesitated. "We lost him."

"You what? He got away?" Mick said exasperatedly.

"We have no more victims to trace him to. Remember the whole turning and not killing part?" Josef said indignantly. "It is hard to track someone who doesn't leave you anything to track."

"Alright Josef, you win. Just keep me posted." Mick went to hang up.

"Hold up Mick!" Mick put the phone to his ear again. "I haven't heard of any victims from the fledgling you are tracking down either. You think he croaked?"

"I don't think so, but if I find out I will let you know." Mick promised.

"Oh!" Josef exclaimed, "There is one thing about the rogue that we did find out."

Mick listened intently, "Yes?"

"He is old. Like ME old. That will make him harder to catch when we do find him. It will also make this Shawn guy tougher to beat too so be careful."

"You know you made me stronger too when you changed me back after I took the cure. So it shouldn't be too hard." Mick had found a temporary cure a few years ago and got to spend a few weeks as a human, before Beth was taken hostage by another vampire. The only way to save her was to be re-turned by Josef. The cure would have worn off eventually, it was made to do that, but with Beth in trouble Mick had to make a choice.

"Don't get cocky Mick." Josef warned. "Power doesn't always have to do with sire's age."

"Ok ok. I didn't think you would be one to give me another lecture."

"Sire's take care of their babies Mick…" he said it like that because Josef knew Mick would fume over it. "At least they are supposed to take care of them, but right now I have my hands full trying to take care of someone else's."

"You mean the other surviving vampire? The one who told you what the rogue was doing in the first place?" Mick wondered what his friend was doing babysitting.

"Yeah him. Having some problems with his friends but nothing I cannot handle at the moment." Josef's tone suggested major annoyance. Mick decided not to push him on it.

"Don't strain yourself Josef. Catch you later." Mick hung up the phone and looked at his computer screen. While talking with Josef he found the official website for Psych. Mick smiled at the name. He thought it was fitting. In all his years he had never met a real psychic. Heck, in his opinion there were no such things as psychics. "But that is something that people say about vampires too so you never know." Mick thought, trying to keep an open mind. He also found some news associated with the business and the police officer Buzz was right. They had solved many high profile cases. He quickly read through a few of them and looked up the address for the office.

* * *

When Juliet, Gus and Carlton got to the hospital they ran up to the check in and asked where Shawn was. Before the receptionist could answer they heard a scream from down the hall. "JULES!" Ignoring the receptionist's protests they made a B-line for the hospital room.

Juliet teared up when she saw Shawn. He had been strapped to the bed. They were trying to take blood and put in an IV. His wide eyes looked at her for help through the pain he was experiencing.

Gus turned away and started shaking. Even Carlton turned pale. A doctor rushed in and took a look at Shawn's blood that was just taken from him. It was unnaturally pale. "Get this man some transfusions immediately!" the doctor shouted and started putting a blood pressure cuff on the squirming Shawn.

The doctor noticed the distraught group standing in the doorway. "You need to get out of the way! Someone get them out!"

An orderly moved to push them out when the impossible happened. Carlton stepped forward. "Doctor, I have O-negative blood. If he needs it I can give it."

Everyone froze. Even Shawn glanced up in surprise and mumbled incoherently through the oxygen mask he was wearing. The doctor broke the moment by sitting Carlton down in a chair next to Shawn's bed and prepping him for the emergency transfusion. Gus grabbed Juliet and led her away as the doctor ordered Shawn's blood to be sent to the lab for testing.

Back in the waiting room Shawn's father Henry was just checking in at the desk as the pair came up with haunted looks in their eyes.

"What happened? Is that Shawn?" Henry could hear the screams from down the hall and rushed past Juliet and Gus to get to his son.

Juliet started to cry again. Gus gave her arm a squeeze and said, "He'll be ok. He is always ok."

"What is going on? I have never seen anything like that?" Juliet sniffed.

"I don't know, but there is definitely something weird going on." Gus's brows were knit together. "I just wish I knew what it was."

* * *

Mick got out of the car and surveyed the Psych office. It could only be described from the outside as "Quaint." Bubbly green letters spelled out the word PSYCH on a picture window facing the ocean. Mick walked up to the door and found it surprisingly unlocked.

He walked inside. There was a waiting room connected to a larger room with two computer desks facing each other. Mick read that Shawn had a partner from some of the articles but it seemed like he went through them faster than he did apartments. They all had strange names too, Gus Silly pants Jackson, Ovaltine Jacobs, Longbranch Pennywhistle, Methuselah Honeysuckle… and it looked like he was currently working with a Burton Guster. Or so the name plate on the desk said. Also, by the looks of the place it was owned by ten year olds.

Action figures and posters littered the shelves and walls. They had a set of lockers, a large screen TV and a fridge… which was currently standing wide open with food littered everywhere. Mick's instincts led him to investigate the fridge. He took a long sniff and closed his eyes. The air was filled with the smell of fear, both human and vampire. He was here recently and by the looks of it he had tried to sleep in his fridge.

When vampires want to sleep, they are instinctively drawn to cold. It is incredibly uncomfortable and almost impossible to sleep on a regular bed or even a couch. Mick slept in a freezer himself, abet a nicer glass one in a secret room but when you are desperate… a fridge could do. Mick approached the main sitting area cautiously. He noticed some of the furniture was knocked over. Another sniff told him that something had happened and four people had been involved. Three men and one woman.

"Man!" Mick smacked himself on the head. He recognized at least three of the scents. Two were from the cops that hurried out of the station when he got there and another he recognized from the hospital in LA. The lavender smell from the black man outside the building. He had come so closed and missed Shawn each time by minutes. Mick sniffed again, forcing himself to remember Shawn's scent so he would know him if he saw him.

Another call came to his phone just as he was standing up to leave. He recognized the number as his blood dealer Guillermo, a coroner vampire who got blood from dead bodies. It was all Mick drank. He got it pretty cheap considering he liked a blood type that was the vampire equivalent of an off brand. Josef actually liked the stuff too but would never admit to it.

Wondering why Guillermo would call him at this time of day, Mick answered the phone, "St. John here."

"Mick, it is Guillermo. I have some information for you about your case. I can tell you where your guy is right now."


	5. Shawn's Anatomy

**Chapter 5- "Shawn's Anatomy"**

Mick was dumbstruck. Guillermo knew where Shawn was? How? "Where is he? I need all the help I can get on this one."

"I was on a website, and I came across something." He said with more excitement in his Hispanic voice than usual.

"Wait wait wait… creepy what?" Mick asked confused.

"Cadavers Mick. It is a website where coroners tell about the weird bodies that come into their departments. One coroner named Woody, real name Woodrow Strode is a coroner for the SBPD. This guy has had some real doozies! Flash drives in stomachs… serial killers…"

Getting impatient Mick blurted out, "What does he have now Guillermo?"

Taking an obvious deep breath Guillermo continued, "Vampire blood."

That got Mick's attention. "Did he say where it came from?"

"He said the Santa Barbara hospital sent it to him because it seemed to be cadaver blood and the hospital thought it was sent to them by mistake. When he analyzed it the blood was found to have almost no hemoglobin. He figured out the hospital thought no one could live and be that low on hemoglobin. Which they really couldn't." Guillermo added.

"So he knows about vampires?" Mick wondered how many people were going to find out about vampires in one day.

"Not really. Earlier this year it looks like he posted about a body drained of blood. He labeled it "Vampire victim" but it ended up being a killer who drained blood due to a hemoglobin disorder called Von Wildabrant's disease. Could be just a running joke due to that but…" Guillermo hesitated.

"…but it is worth checking out." Mick finished for him. Mick wrote down the hospital's address. "Thanks man. Call Josef and let him know what you found. I am heading to the hospital." Mick hung up and hurried out the door. "Finally a break in the case. This guy is really starting to be a pain in my ass and I've never even met him."

* * *

Shawn could really say that if it wouldn't have been for Yin and Yang almost killing everyone he loved, this would definitely be the worst day of his life. What was worse is going to have to live down the fact that Carlton had donated blood that saved his life.

Currently, he was strapped to the hospital bed and almost every machine imaginable as well. Not to mention he was surrounded by cold packs in an attempt to get his fever down. At least his eyes weren't yellow anymore.

"So much for a miraculous recovery." He grumbled.

Henry looked up from the magazine he was reading. "What?"

"Nothing dad. Just getting comfortable."

Henry rolled his eyes. "Shawn, until we figure out what is wrong you need to stay put. It is a wonder you are even conscious.

Shawn pouted. He was feeling a lot better but being confided made him antsy. They took his blood and had sent it for tests over an hour ago and they have not heard anything yet. Juliet and Carlton had to get back to the station to finish their reports for the night. The chief had sent her best to Shawn but told the two detectives to get their butts back to the station.

Gus had left a few minutes earlier to go get some food for Henry and himself. He had asked Shawn and made his worry face when Shawn said no.

"I'm fine. Peachy, pineappley, which ever word applies in a situation like this." Shawn insisted and he actually was pretty ok considering. He took stock of his condition. He was still a little hungry but oddly satisfied, which was weird because he had not eaten, and the cold packs were making him sleepy. Shawn tried to figure out what was going through his mind when he slept in the freezer. He was just going to chalk it up to being delirious from being sick.

The nurse came in at the same time as Gus who was carrying a bag of hamburgers and fries. Gus stepped closer to Shawn's bed, trying to sneakily bring it closer to Shawn so he could grab it if he wanted. Shawn sniffed but ignored the food. Defeated, Gus handed Henry his half and sat down next to Shawn's bed. The nurse checked to make sure all of his lines were ok and the straps were tight. "Um, would you be able to take these off now? I am totally over my Faruza Balk from the Craft phase."

The nurse raised an eyebrow. "The doctor wants to keep you in these for a while longer. You apparently tried to bite at the paramedics."

Shawn indignantly looked away. "That does not sound like me."

"What are you talking about Shawn?" Gus interjected. "Your first line of defense is to bite someone."

Shawn scowled and yelled. "That is SO not true!" Then he smiled innocently. "It is my second line of defense. My first line is a flying monkey leap and you know it Gus. What?" The two friends bumped fists.

Still not deterred Shawn tried to think of an excuse to get them off. "Can I be let out of these if I say I have to use the bathroom?"

"That is not necessary sir." The nurse smiled because she knew what he was trying to do. "You have a catheter in."

"Shawn looked confused, "What does having a priest here have to do with my bladder being full?"

"Not a catholic Shawn! Catheter." Henry clarified. "It is something they connect to you so you don't have to get up to use the restroom."

"What?!" Shawn looked down as much as he could and he turned beat red. "You guys are not telling Jules about this!"

"Shaking his head Henry looked at the nurse. "What is going on? The blood test was sent a long time ago."

"I am not sure. We are busy today but I can go check for you." The nurse walked toward the door and looked back at Gus with a wink.

"Gus, you totally didn't hit on that nurse before you came in the room did you?" Shawn looked accusingly at his friend.

"I don't know what you are insinuating. I was merely holding the door for her." Gus took a big bite of his burger so he wouldn't have to talk about it.

Henry moved closer to his son. Who collapsed exasperated back on is pillow. "I know you want out but we don't know what will happen if they release you from the hospital again."

"Don't worry about me so much dad, I am not a kid." Shawn complained.

"You are my kid, and I don't want to see anything happen to you." Henry had long since perfected his "Dad" voice.

"You never know. Once I get out of here I could be in a side show, world's fastest healing human. One cut for one dollar!" Shawn used his announcer voice.

Gus snorted but Henry was fuming. "Shawn, you are scared to death right now. How hard is that to admit? Your friends and family are going to worry about you no matter how hard you try to protect them from the truth!" Henry was angry. He knew if Shawn had just been honest about how he was feeling from the start, none of this would have happened.

Shawn's face registered the rage he was feeling. "I know dad! I am scared, fine. I admit it but what good is it going to do? I have not slept, eaten or been able to drink anything in over three days. You think my head is not a complete wreck? I saw your face Gus!" he said turning to his friend. "I heard what you said to Jules on the phone about being afraid of me."

Gus gave Henry a guilty look when the older man turned to glare accusingly at him.

"I have been scared of myself too you know and if the only thing that is making me feel better is the fact that my snarky eloquence is still intact then I am going to snark it up!" He ended with a dramatic point in Henry's direction.

Both Gus and Henry's eyes got big as dinner plates.

"What?!" Shawn grumbled, still angry from his rant. When their expressions never changed his attitude instantly went to concern. "What guys?"

"Uh Shawn, your arm." Gus eeked out.

"What about…." Shawn started until he looked at his hand. It was free from restraint. It had ripped right out and through the thick straps like nothing. He hadn't even noticed it.

"Gus. Could I speak to you for a moment?" Henry pulled in towards the door.

"We'll be right back Shawn. To give you some time to cool down." Gus and Henry disappeared out the door.

"Wait, guys! I didn't… C'mon!" Shawn stuttered but the door had closed behind them. "Damn it!" Shawn hit the bed with his free hand. He just literally, single handedly drove away his support system. Using Carlton's voice he said to himself. "Spencer what the hell is with you?"

He glanced at the other restraints. No rips and all were connected tightly. "Could have been a fluke." He rationalized.

* * *

Shawn was still trying to figure out how he did it when coroner Woody burst in the room unannounced. He quickly shut the door behind him and looked to see if anyone was coming. When he turned around, Shawn could see he was smiling from ear to ear.

"Shawn! Buddy! I heard you were here." Woody plopped down in a chair by the bedside.

Still not in the best of moods but not liking to take his anger out on people that didn't deserve it, Shawn attempted to be polite. Covering his eyes in frustration he said through gritted teeth, " Woods, buddy… this is not the best time."

Woody looked down at Shawn, he was still smiling. "Well, I have something that will cheer you up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of red liquid. It was in a blood test tube so Shawn figured it was blood, but it looked off. It was too pale to be right. Woody explained, "Some guys in the lab came across a blood test that was accidentally sent to them instead of the coroner. Well, I help out here once and a while when SBPD business is slow and got to check out the blood."

Shawn looked at the bar code numbers on the blood test. They matched the numbers on his hospital wrist band. "Uh, what do you mean it was accidentally sent to the lab and not the coroner?"

"Well I could see why they thought it was corpse blood. The hemoglobin count was too low for anyone to live." Woody explained.

Shawn distinctly remembered the doctor screaming to give him an immediate transfusion. He never realized how close to death he actually was.

"Any who." Woody continued, "I remembered that case you were on about that guy who needed blood transfusions to live and did a little experiment. I added some fresh blood to see what would happen. You know, for science, and the reaction was amazing! The blood came alive. I checked it out again under a scope and you could not tell it was any different than any other blood." Shawn could see that Woody was really excited to talk about this and any other time Shawn would be right there with him, but it was his blood that Woody was talking about.

"Do you realize what I am telling you Shawn? This very well could be real vampire blood!" Woody finished the sentence with a flourish expecting the usual big reaction out of his friend.

Shawn was silent and had a blank look on his face. Woody was extremely concerned that his normally hyper buddy had no reaction to that type of reveal. "Shawn? Shawn?"

Shawn could not hear him at the moment. He was too busy putting the pieces of the puzzle in his head together. The stranger coming into his room with a bag of blood….

"Hey Shawn Gus said when you go quiet it means you are freaking out."

…passing up all his favorite foods…

"Shawn you ok?"

…choking on the taste of water…

"Woody to Shawn! Come in Shawn!"

…overheating in the sun…

"Should I get the nurse?"

…the teeth he saw in the bathroom mirror…

"Are you having a vision?"

…and feeling like hell the longer he was out of the hospital not getting…

"Blood transfusions!" Shawn suddenly shouted. He and Woody both looked at the blood bags attached to Shawn's arm.

Woody was probably the best pathologist Shawn had met but when he got on a tangent, it was like he had on blinders. The blinders were off now. Woody saw all the machines Shawn was hooked up to; tubes hung off almost every part of his body, saline, two blood bags, catheter, heart monitor, O2 sensor, ice packs all over his body and straps.

"Shawn what the hell happened to you?" Woody asked sympathetically.

"Well according to you," Shawn said with no trace of humor and his voice starting to crack, "I am a vampire."

"You?" Woody grabbed Shawn's chart and read the numbers comparing them to the test tube. The hurt and guilt that showed on Woody's face was enough to bring tears to Shawn's eyes. "Oh man I am so sorry! I didn't mean to… I was just joking. You know me! Always a kidder…"

Rolling over as much as he could so Woody would not see him cry, Shawn whispered, "Makes sense though." Before sobbing into his pillow.

* * *

Mick made it to the hospital in about fifteen minutes. He broke a few speed laws but at this point he didn't care. He really hoped Guillermo's info was good. Since it was getting late in the evening there was only one nurse at the check in station.

"Excuse me miss? IS there a Shawn Spencer admitted here?"

The nurse looked up and smiled, "He is a popular guy tonight! Yes he is here but he is in intensive care. Only family is allowed to visit him."

Mick showed his private eye badge. "I am a private investigator. It is important that I ask Shawn some questions now. It has to do with some incidents that happened a few days ago."

"I will have to check on that. There is a doctor in with him now so you might have to wait." The nurse got up and went in the back to use the phone. Mick took the chance, swiveled the computer around when the nurse was not looking. He got the room number for Shawn and headed for the elevator.

* * *

Woody felt like an ass. He should never have broken confidentiality laws but he was too excited and wanted to cheer his friend up. He was going to be in bigger trouble for this than the whole watch stealing incident.

Shawn was just getting his emotions under control when someone knocked and came in the room. It was a doctor with a clip board.

"Oh man," Shawn closed his eyes and wiped the last of his tears away. "Look guys, I just want to be left alone right now."

The doctor came farther into the room and Woody had to step back to give him some space by the bed. "Mr. Spencer," the doctor checked his clip board. "How are you feeling?"

Shawn snorted and looked up at the doctor. "Ok for an undead person." He glanced at Woody who ducked his head.

Looking back at the doctor Shawn noticed something. The doctor had frozen in place looking towards the door. He leaned his head forward and closed his eyes. "My god is he sniffing?" Shawn thought to himself.

Woody obviously thought the doctor was sniffing at him. He did a pit check and shrugged.

"Doctor what are you doing?" Shawn raised his eyebrow. Suddenly, Shawn smelled something too. He had never smelled anything like it before. Musky but not unpleasantly so, some sourness. It was not coming from outside the door but from the doctor himself. He just didn't smell… right.

Woody, seeing Shawn was now sniffing, became incredibly self-conscious." Hey guys, I have not showered yet today so don't judge."

The doctor opened his eyes and looked at Shawn. Shawn definitely knew there was something wrong with this guy and it triggered a memory. _A dark shadow hooking him up to a blood bag…_ "You will be fine now."

Blinking the memory away Shawn sat straight up in bed as much as his restraints would allow and a cascade of cold packs fell off of him. "WOODY! Run! It's him!"

The doctor's attention snapped to Woody who was preparing to flee. He moved faster than either of them had ever seen and smacked Woody across the room with the clip board, breaking it in the process. Woody slumped unmoving to the floor.

"You bastard!" Shawn struggled against the restraints.

"It was necessary. We cannot have anyone interfering." The doctor stepped forward pulling a thin, sharp, wooden stake from his uniform.

"Hey man, was joking about the whole undead thing! It is just a blood disorder! Van Wilder's, Von Lichtenstein's...!" Seeing that tactic wasn't helping Shawn reverted to the time tested, age old tradition of screaming his lungs out.

"DAD! GUS! Anyone! HELP!" He struggled, hoping for another last minute save by his friends, but the save never came. The doctor was too fast and he plunged the sharp object right through Shawn's heart.


	6. Shawn Takes a Stake in the Heart

**Chapter 6- "Shawn Takes a Stake in the Heart"**

Mick Got off the elevator and walked briskly towards the intensive care ward. Two men were walking towards the elevator, he recognized the lavender smell instantly. This had to be someone who knew Shawn to have been at the psych office. Mick slowed his pace and listened to their conversation. They were obviously arguing about something.

"I know there is something wrong with him Gus! We are in a hospital. They don't bring people here just for kicks." Henry rolled his eyes.

Gus glared "I know that, but don't you think that this goes a little above the normal even for Shawn?"

"Finally." Mick whispered to himself and approached the two men. "Excuse me, are you two talking about Shawn Spencer?"

Henry looked suspiciously at the approaching man. "Who wants to know?"

Extending a hand and giving an assuring smile Mick continued. "Mick St. John. I'm a private detective..." is all he got out before a desperate voice started shouting.

"DAD! GUS! Anyone! HELP!"

"Shawn!" Gus and Henry said at the same time and bolted towards Shawn's room followed closely by Mick. A blood curdling scream of pain followed.

They all burst into Shawn's room at the same time. Alarms were going off everywhere, and the bed was empty except for a round blood stain in the middle of the mattress. Henry fell to his knees while Gus grabbed on to his shoulders so he wouldn't fall over too.

Mick moved past the shocked men and into the room. A white haired man in a lab coat lay sprawled across the floor on the other side of the room. Mick ran over and checked his pulse. It was steady so he was in no immediate danger. The window was open and the IVs that were not smashed on the floor were swinging. They had missed him by seconds. Mick closed his eyes and sniffed deeply, trying to get a feel for what happened here. He caught glimpses of Shawn laying on the bed filled with panic while another vampire staked him through the heart. Mick opened his eyes and looked closer at the bed and the circle of blood in the middle of it.

"Poor guy." Mick said aloud. He knew what it felt like to be staked. It did not kill them like the movies say, but it does hurt like hell, and is scary as hell. Paralyzing them almost completely they were at the mercy of whoever had them, and it looked like the rogue wanted Shawn alive. Unfortunately stakings were really hard to heal and any blood he had managed to get from the transfusions here would be completely used up. Mick shook his head. "This is really not good."

Mick turned and faced the two men in the doorway. Neither had moved but were still taking in the horrible sight of the room. The alarms had brought a swarm of nurses and doctors who were squeezing past them and piling into the room. Questions were flying from every direction and Mick could tell that neither of the men were in any mental state to be answering any questions right now.

Usually pretty soft spoken, even when angry, Mick had enough of the noise and yelled "HEY!" at the top of his lungs. This was more than enough to quiet the room down and get everyone's attention. "Now, what everyone needs to do is calm down, let the security secure the scene for the police and nurses if you could help these gentlemen out, they clearly cant be here right now."

Some of the staff looked indignant at being bossed around while others looked ashamed at their unprofessional reactions but all did as they were told. Two nurses helped Henry to his feet and lead them out of the room to some chairs. Mick followed.

Gus looked in Mick's direction and his eyes narrowed. Gus' six years as a detective had given him a pretty good instinct when it came to strangers, unless they were beautiful women, and he thought that it was too big of a coincidence that Mick showed up right as his best friend was abducted out of a hospital bed. "My name is Burton Guster, I am Shawn's business partner. This is Henry Spencer, his father. Who did you say you were again?"

"Mick St. John. I am a private investigator from LA. I have been trying to find Shawn ever since he left the hospital this morning."

"Why? Did Shawn do something wrong?" Gus asked puzzled.

Mick was about to answer when Henry's intense eyes snapped to look at him. "You weren't exactly trying to find Shawn were you? You were trying to find the person who was after Shawn and you screwed up."

Mick could see that this guy was a great cop and lying to him would not be easy. "I have been investigating a string of murders and kidnappings that originated in the LA hospital Shawn stayed at." Mick figured if he gave a bit of truth with each lie, he could possibly get away with using their help to find Shawn again.

Henry stood up and grabbed Gus. Looking at Mick Henry said, "I need to speak to him in private." They walked down the hall but Mick could still hear them perfectly.

"Gus, this guy is lying about something. I wouldn't give this guy another thought if we didn't need all the help we can get to find Shawn." Gus could see Henry was still white and shaking with fear for his son but he knew that look in Henry's eyes. He had a mission now and it was all that was keeping him from falling apart, Henry would not stop until he found Shawn.

"What do we do now?" Gus asked

"Henry looked over Gus' shoulder at Mick and saw Juliet and Carlton hurrying out of the elevator behind him. "Now we need to be here for each other, so we can get the bastard that did this."

"I hear that." Gus whispered sadly, wondering if his best friend was even alive to find.

* * *

Shawn could not move, not a muscle. He could feel something was hurting his chest but not being able to look around left him stuck looking at his kidnappers butt. He was a grown man and was being carried like a sack of potatoes. Plus this guy really smelled bad. He knew they were still in the city, he would hear footfalls on pavement but the footsteps were way too fast for someone carrying a body over their shoulder.

Since he could not do anything else, he counted. It was a way Henry taught him to guess how far he was taken if he was ever kidnapped. He never imagined he would be using Henry's advice so much when he was a kid but these past six years it was almost like he had to use the skills Henry taught him at least once a week. "Eight hundred sixty, eight hundred sixty one..."

The man's pace slowed and came to a stop. Shawn could hear a metal door opening and closing. Shawn figured it had to be a large building because of the echo that sounded when it closed. A few steps later brought them to another door. This one opened softer and as they stepped through it a wave of cold hit Shawn so hard that he gasped. A "Guurg" of pain escaped his lips at the forced inhale of air. Shawn had little time to recover before being pitched forward into a sitting position on what he could only guess was a chair. When the man moved out of his field of view Shawn saw he was in a giant meat freezer. Chains hung from the ceiling and platforms jutted from the walls. His hands and feet got pulled behind him forcefully and Shawn heard and felt a chain being wrapped around them.

"What did he give me? I have to move!" Shawn thought frantically. He set his jaw, closed his eyes as much as he could and tried to move. He managed a quick jerk of his hand. The man grabbed it tighter, painfully tight, and finished tying them.

Defeated, Shawn stopped trying to move. The man saw Shawn's body go a bit more limp and he smiled. "This one knows when to save his strength." He said aloud as he stepped in front of Shawn once more. He could almost see the glare in the young man's eyes.

The man's hand shot forward faster than Shawn's eyes could follow and suddenly the pressure on his chest was gone. Shawn sucked in a big gasp of air and started coughing. Between chest wracking, painful coughs, Shawn saw the man was holding the same stake from the hospital in his hand, it was now covered in blood.

"No way. No way. Nope, not happening." Shawn tried to wrap his rational mind around what had just occurred. He had dealt with mummies, aliens, werewolves, recently vampires and each one had a way to be scientifically explained. Shawn knew he had to think this through. He was not a vampire. That much was for sure. Woody was just being Woody and over reacted. This guy was a garden variety nut job with some acting skills and a quick switcheroo hand. He had to have pretended to stake him and shoved a needle in his chest full of some sort of paralyzing liquid. He would have to play this guy and hopefully he would get out of here in one piece.

"Shawn." the man said in a very calm almost fatherly voice.

Shawn looked up at him with a scowl, "My friends call me Shawn, my business associates and stubborn cops call me Spencer...you can call me 'Kiss my ass'."

Ignoring Shawn's comment the man continued, "My name is Aaron you can call me Aaron. I am only trying to help you. If I wanted you dead, I would not have saved you in the first place."

Shawn stopped struggling and looked right at him. "Saved me... right, you see here's the thing Aaron. This has been the worst week of my entire life. You didn't save me. You gave me some kind of contagious blood disorder! Thanks for that by the way."

The man shook his head. "I have given you eternal life. Do not mock the gift I have given you."

"If you are a vampire you really give new meaning to the phrase 'Bat Shit Crazy." Shawn sneered.

"You are not going to make this easy are you?" grumbled the man.

Shawn cocked his head. "I can make it super easy. Let me go."

Aaron ignored his comment and busied himself in a corner connecting chains to walls. Getting no answer Shawn decided to look around for something, anything to throw this guy off. He remembered something from the hospital. He closed his eyes and saw how familiar the guy seemed with medical equipment.

"You are a doctor!" Shawn blurted. The man raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Duh." "No I mean a real doctor. You weren't just faking being one." Shawn figured he had nothing else to lose and tried the psychic approach. "I can see it now! You were the one who hooked me up to the blood bag, but that is not all you did!" Shawn closed his eyes tightly and remembered seeing Aaron leave his room with more than one blood bag left... his eyes popped open in horror, this guy had infected more than just him! "You did this to more people!"

"How do you know this?" Aaron stood up and walked towards Shawn.

"I am a psychic. I work for the SBPD. They will come looking for me, and when they find me you are in huge trouble!" Shawn gave him a toothy smile.

"There are no such thing as psychics." Aaron said skeptically.

"Said the liar who has done nothing but try to convince me that we are vampires." Shawn pointed out. "OH!" he shouted, "I sense that the others are near by too! Hey! Anyone else in here kidnapped?"

Shawn could see he was getting visibly angry. "There we go!" He thought victoriously. "I just need to keep on this track."

Hamming it up, Shawn kept going, "Where are the others? In the next room? Are they vampires too? Damn I thought I was spec..."

With a loud growl Aaron was suddenly in Shawn's face. He no longer looked like the kindly doctor who talked to him a minute ago. Shawn was staring into the face of a deadly predator. His eyes white, teeth elongated and skin deathly pale. Shawn's photographic memory would not let him forget where he saw a face like that before. The bathroom mirror at the office.

Aaron finally saw realization hit Shawn's eyes. He was usually not so dramatic about things but this guy really knew what buttons to push. He had failed with his other fledglings and allowed another to be taken from him. He would not let his last one go so easy.

He was about to say something else but that was when Shawn started screaming at the top of his lungs. It was a high pitched repeating wail that caused Aaron to have to cover his ears. Shawn was busy trying to hop his chair as far away from Aaron as possible, but unfortunately he was not very balanced and ended up flipping the chair over on its side.

The wind sufficiently knocked out of him, Shawn stopped screaming. Panting and looking up into Aaron's freakish face, Shawn witnessed it turn back to normal right before his eyes. His denial could no longer hold ground, he was a vampire.

"It totally figures that being a vampire would make my life suck." Shawn grumbled still looking up seeing Aaron's wide smile.


	7. Cold Hard Truth

**Chapter 7- "Cold Hard Truth"**

It took a while for Juliet to calm down enough to meet Mick and fill her in on what happened. Carlton, being his usual suspicious self, had called in Mick's name and would not say a thing to him until he got back that he actually was a PI that occasionally worked with the LAPD. Even then Carlton kept his suspicious face on, just in case.

They were all sitting around a hospital bed. This one just happened to be Woody's. It had been an hour and he was still unconscious with a giant bruise on his forehead and a broken nose, having taken a clip board to the face. While they waited, each of the people in the room, Carlton, Juliet, Gus, Henry and Mick were wracking their brains for any clue that could have been left behind by the one who took Shawn. When Woody came to they hoped that he would be able to give some description of the man.

Mick paced around the room. "It seems that the kidnapper had been watching Shawn for a while. He was just waiting for the right moment to take him." Mick concluded. He was incredibly disappointed in himself for losing Shawn. Josef was not pleased when he had called and told him what happened.

Carlton shook his head. "Christ. That man gets kidnapped more than anyone I have ever seen."

Mick turned towards Carlton and raised an eyebrow. "How many times has he been kidnapped?"

Henry hung his head and mumbled, "It is in the low twenties."

Giving an impressed whistle Mick stopped pacing and took a chair by the bed. "It would help me investigate if I knew a bit more about Shawn. What kind of person is he?"

Talking about Shawn's past was easy for most of them. Everyone, even Carlton, who was extremely bitter towards Shawn in general, had something good to say about him. He was funny and thoughtful if given enough time to stop and think. Apparently it was hard for him to slow down his mind and it usually manifested in ADD like symptoms. Constantly moving, changing subjects, jumping in head first. However, when he did focus he could be incredibly brilliant.

"Remember the time he had us dress up with Lassie and go under cover as Civil War re-enactors?" Gus recounted. This got a chuckle from the group.

"Oh my God yes! His fake side burns were hilarious!" Juliet giggled.

Carlton, feeling ambitious added his own anecdote. "Remember when Shawn was shot, hanging off my car going 70 miles per hour down a highway and still managed to shoot the radiator out of the perp's vehicle?" By the reaction that got everyone did remember it… but not fondly. Missing the awkward silence, Carlton continued. "I called him detective. That day he deserved it."

Sensing that this was probably the biggest complement that Carlton had ever given Shawn, Mick decided to move the conversation on before he could say something to ruin the moment. "How has Shawn been acting the past few days, after getting sick?"

The group was silent for a long time. Mick did not see this as a good sign.

Finally Gus spoke up. "He has been more moody. He also had not eaten or been able to drink anything. He seemed to be fine in the hospital, his wound healed incredibly fast, but once getting out he went down-hill fast."

"You said you were looking for Shawn." Henry knew that Mick was fishing for information about his son, but he would be damned if he gave information without getting some in return. "What made you think that this guy was after him? Had he done something like this before?"

Mick knew he would have to be careful not to talk himself into a corner with this guy.

"I am still trying to figure out who he is. There were a string of poisonings in the hospital in LA where Shawn was admitted. I think Shawn was chosen by chance but I can't be sure."

"How many people did this happen to?" Juliet asked. She was on the verge of tears again.

"Five, including Shawn." Mick admitted truthfully.

Henry leaned forward and looked him right in the eyes. "How many survived?"

All eyes were on Mick now, waiting for his answer that could give them hope or crush their hearts. "Only one other besides Shawn."

Everyone seemed to slump back in their chairs. Carlton's brooding glare came back. "How did they die?"

Before Mick could answer with some watered down semi truth, a nasal blocked voice from the hospital bed piped up. "Probably massive blood loss or nutrient deficiency."

Everyone jumped at Woody's sudden input.

"Woody! What were you doing in Shawn's room?" Juliet urgently prodded.

A very guilty look came over Woody's expressive features. "I got a blood sample sent to me from the lab guys here. They must have thought it was a joke or a mistake since they suspected it was corpse blood. I was working in the morgue when I got it. I tested it and found that the blood had some form of hemoglobin deficiency, like the one we worked on earlier this year. I think it had to do with Lassiter's girlfriend's brother." Carlton squirmed at the mention of his girlfriend. "I heard Shawn had come into the hospital. I didn't know for what but I figured it would cheer him up to joke with him that I had found vampire blood."

Mick nodded and thought, "So this is the coroner who posted the vampire comment."

"Oh no Woody… you didn't" Carlton squeezed the bridge of his nose.

Woody nodded. "I didn't realize the blood test was actually legit… and actually his till I had already blurted it out." Woody looked at the accusatory faces in the room with deep regret. "He got pretty upset and I was trying to apologize when the weird doctor came in."

"Weird doctor?" Everyone echoed.

"Yeah, he came in and asked if Shawn was ok. Then next thing I know Shawn is telling me to run and I get knocked out. Is Shawn ok?" Woody waited for an answer but their silence was all the answer he needed. "What happened?"

"He was abducted and injured. We were waiting to see if you could give us some description of the doctor so we have something to go on." Mick explained.

"Yes! Definitely. I can tell you what he looked like." Woody eagerly volunteered.

Juliet stood up. Once you give your statement we can put out APBs and help find Shawn."

"It has to be quick though." Woody said seriously.

"Why Woody?" Henry waited for his explanation.

Woody may seem like a giant goof off most days but when it came to being a coroner, he was brilliant and most of the people in the room knew it.

"Two reasons. One, we need to keep his blood condition under control. Whatever was in the tainted blood he received probably caused him to use up the hemoglobin in his blood at a faster rate." Woody cocked his head, "Which could explain the fast healing…"

Henry shook his head. "How long were you awake before you said anything Woody?"

Woody got an indignant look on his face. "That is beside the point." He turned to Mick and whispered, "About ten minutes." then continued, " I suspect he needs transfusions at least once a day at this advanced stage."

After a pause, Gus asked. "What is the second reason we need to get to him?"

Woody sighed and looked down. "Because in his sick delirium, Shawn may actually think he is a vampire…"

* * *

"Can I fly?"

"No"

"Can I open a can with my fangs?"

"What? No!"

"Will I be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?"

"We can jump pretty high…"

"Will I fry in the sun?"

"It isn't good to…"

"If you keep your face all vampy for too long does it stick that way?"

"You aren't making sense."

Shawn had been at it for a half an hour. Any question, vampire related or not that popped into his head he blurted it out. It was only a matter of time before Aaron got angry and left. Shawn figured he would have an easier time escaping if he wasn't here. Go figure. Some of the questions Shawn was dying to know the answer to but he did not want to trust the word of a guy he just met… let alone a guy who poisoned him with vampire blood, staked him and currently had him tied to a chair.

A few frivolous questions later and Shawn was sure he had him storming out, but in the middle of asking whether or not they could turn into bats he was hit with an all too familiar piercing pain. He doubled over as far as his stretching arms would let him and groaned loudly.

Aaron turned around from the door and with an expression that Shawn could only guess was some kind of concern. "Have you had any blood yet?"

Through the pain Shawn raised his head, his eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"Have you drunk blood at all?" Aaron spoke slowly as if he was talking to a child.

"I thought you were tailing me the whole time."

"Not the whole time. I took a bit of time off to find this place and get it ready. Now I am not going to ask again. Have you had any blood to drink yet?" the frustration in Aaron's voice was music to Shawn's ears.

"Oh yeah, tons. I ate this little old lady on my way to the hospital. Mmm very tasty, oh and her dog was a nice dessert…Gah!" Shawn's retort was again interrupted by a horrible pain.

Aaron grabbed Shawn's face. Despite Shawn's struggles, Aaron was able to get a good look at his eyes. The whites were yellow. That only happened in severe cases of vampiric dehydration. His hemoglobin was dangerously low. If he didn't have blood soon he would die.

Growling in frustration, Aaron grabbed the chair with Shawn in it and pulled it up against the wall with chains attached to it. Being careful to keep Shawn restrained he clasped the shackles to Shawn's wrists. Once Aaron was satisfied Shawn would not get out of them, he untied him from the chair and quickly stepped back, keeping the now kicking and struggling Shawn at a distance. Aaron then rushed out of the freezer and left Shawn to puzzle at his reaction.

Finally being alone, Shawn tried to work on getting free. While working to free his hands, Shawn thought about Juliet. He had no idea how she and Gus would handle finding out he was a vampire. He was not even sure how he was handling it. Should he be more freaked out? Happy that he was immortal? He honestly didn't know, so he tried to focus on the things he did know so far about vampires. For sure he knew he could go out in the day time, for a while anyway. For sure he knew he was stronger, the ripped strap at the hospital could attest to that. He could not eat food anymore. He took a minute to mourn the loss of pineapple. Last and certainly the least thing he wanted to acknowledge was the fact that vampires drank blood. He would have to drink blood, or at least get daily transfusions. He felt better when in the hospital and Shawn knew it had to have something to do with it.

Shawn yawned. It had been over an hour since Aaron left and he had no luck getting the shackles off his hands or out of the walls. Shawn knew there was one way he could do it but he wasn't exactly that desperate yet. He yawned again. Another vampire fact, cold felt good and made him tired. It was something he had never heard of in vampire lore but it had to be a vampire thing. He had never made it a habit before to sleep in refrigerators or freezers. His eyes started to droop and he curled up against the wall. "A couple minutes rest can't hurt." Shawn closed his eyes and passed out almost instantly.

* * *

When Aaron returned with the squirming human over his shoulder, he found Shawn pressed up against the wall sleeping. Aaron knew this would happen. New turns needed a lot of everything, attention, sleep, blood. He had been a fool to think he could make more than a couple at a time. They went wild, sure but he knew he could have helped them if those self-righteous pricks would have let them live. The fledglings were doing what came naturally. Feeding. All vampires needed to feed. Aaron knew this is a lesson he would have to teach Shawn, and quickly.

The dragging of chains and a high pitched whimper brought Shawn out of his deep sleep. He saw Aaron take a slender womanly figure from over his shoulder and shackle her to the floor.

"You know it isn't the best view when you carry someone like that. Speaking from experience." Shawn wrinkled his nose in mock disgust.

With a quick glare Aaron finished securing the woman to the floor. The shackles were within Shawn's reach but were so short the woman would not be able to stand while wearing them.

The woman could not have been more than twenty five. She was slender, beautiful and innocent. Shawn sniffed and realized she wore the same perfume as Juliet.

Aaron noticed the sniff and smiled. "Smell that do you? Sweet and aromatic."

"Yeah, they sell it at Wal-Mart for twenty bucks, so?" Shawn said sarcastically but his voice was strained. He was trying to stay calm while watching a poor girl cry on the floor in front of him.

"It isn't a perfume. You are smelling fear. More specifically, female fear." Aaron looked down at the terrified girl and gave a toothy grin.

Shawn clenched his fists till his nails bit into his palms. This guy, his mannerisms, his calm but psycho demeanor reminded him of Yin, a serial killer who terrorized him periodically for almost three years. He knew this guy was some sort of zealot. There would be no reasoning with him. The only thing Shawn could do was stall and hope someone would be able to find them. Or that is what he was going to do before Aaron walked up to the girl and drew his fingernail across her neck.

Aaron saw Shawn's eyes go from seething anger to glazed over as soon as he caught the scent. Smelling fresh blood for the first time as a vampire is a hard sensation to describe. Finally being able to put a name, a smell to the craving that is ingrained in their very being was nothing a mortal would be able to understand. Aaron saw Shawn take a couple steps forward before catching himself and backing against the wall once more.

"You need to feed Shawn!" Aaron said sternly. "I need you strong if you are going to be able to stay alive, and you will be strong."

Narrowing his eyes and trying to ignore the gnawing hunger in his gut Shawn asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Aaron knew it was time to tell him what happened to the others, failure or not he would need to know to stay alive. "The other vampires you asked about that I made… they were hunted down and killed before they were strong enough to survive on their own."

Shawn's face went emotionless with disbelief. "You trying to tell me there are vampire hunters out there… C'mon son!"

Aaron shook his head. "Not vampire hunters. Vampires who think it is their duty to police our kind. One was following you around. I staked you and grabbed you because he was out in the hallway on his way to get you."

"He was going to kill me? Why?"

"That is what they do, if a vampire gets what they consider 'out of control' they take them out so they don't expose our existence." Aaron explained. "The one after you is named Mick St. John. He will use your family, your friends, whatever he has to in order to get to you… so he can kill you." A pained look came over Aaron's face.

Shawn didn't know what to say. He could tell this guy was not lying but if his dad had taught him anything it was that if you believed the lie, you could seem like you weren't lying. This guy was obviously crazy, but he didn't know if he was wrong.

"Eat." Aaron prompted.

Shawn's attention immediately snapped back to the woman in front of him. Shock of finding out he was being hunted temporarily gone and replaced with a hunger and longing for the red liquid running down the helpless woman's neck.

He knew what vampires were supposed to do, but he had never really thought of it being anything but a fun game. He remembered when he ordered the slow gin fizzes at the vampire bar. It looked like blood and he and Gus had so much fun seeing who could make the messiest eater. Vampires were not supposed to be real. He wasn't supposed to have to kill someone.

Shawn closed his eyes and breathed through is mouth. He didn't want to have to smell that scent anymore. He covered his ears so he didn't have to hear her cry.

Aaron could see his reluctance and decided that he did not need an audience. "I will leave you to it Shawn. Eventually you have to feed. I will be back when you do." Aaron walked out of the freezer.

Shawn opened his eyes. Not daring to get any closer to the woman, he at least tried talking to her. "Hey, you alright?"

The woman blinked a few times, and whispered, "Who is there?"

"A fellow detainee." Shawn rattled his chains. "I am right next to you, can't you see me?"

"I can barely see my hand in front of my face. It is too dark." The woman sobbed.

"Seeing in the dark, check." Shawn thought. "My name is Shawn. What is yours?" He said aloud.

"Kristen. Where are we? I want to go home!" he could see her raise a hand to her neck. She wiped some of the trickling blood from her neck onto her hand. "What did he do to me? What is going on?"

Shawn was unable to speak. Her wiping the blood sent a huge whiff of it in his direction. A low growl he never knew he could make escaped him and he could feel his fangs start to extend.

"Shawn? Is that you?" Kristen said in a shaky voice.

Almost beyond all thought Shawn had to do something to get out of here. He had to get to his friends and family. If there really was someone using them to get to him he would rather face them head on. He knew there was only one way to do that. It was not going to be pleasant.

Kristen did not see Shawn till he was almost right on top of her. His face was inches from her own. It was very dark but she could see there was something wrong with his eyes. She gasped and almost fell backwards. Shawn caught her and brought her face closer to his.

"I'm going to need you to scream." Shawn said through clenched fangs.

"W-why?" Kristen was shaking badly now. She had never been so scared in her life.

"Because this is going to hurt." Shawn said quietly as he prepared to attempt something so desperate he couldn't believe he was even considering it let alone about to do it.

* * *

Aaron could hear them talking. Saying their names to each other. "I should have told him it would make it harder if he saw them as a person." He thought. Shawn was a tough one to crack that was for sure, but they all cracked in the end.

All at once their talking stopped and Aaron heard a hungry growl, followed a few seconds later by a blood curdling scream of terror and pain. He slowly smiled and walked away from the freezer. He would give Shawn a couple of minutes before going in and taking care of the body.


	8. Shawn Finally Gets a Break

**Chapter 8- "Shawn Finally Gets a Break"**

**Santa Barbara 1993**

"Dad please! Do we have to do this now? I am supposed to meet Gus so we can go to the arcade." Shawn whined to his father. Shawn was sick of his dad always doing this to him. It was some kind of sick quid pro quo. In order to do anything fun he had to put up with "lessons."

"Shawn," Henry scolded as he held his son's left hand in a vice grip. "This is going to be one of the toughest lessons I teach you. Now pay attention!"

Shawn sighed. He knew better by now than to try and get out these things.

"Alright Shawn," Henry took out his handcuffs and put them on his son. He put them on tighter than normal and Shawn made a squeak in protest. "This is how tight handcuffs usually are. Sometimes it is enough to cut off circulation."

Shawn winced, "Yeah, I can tell."

"It has to be tight so a person cannot just slip their wrist out. Their thumbs will be in the way. Try and get out of the cuffs."

Shawn squirmed, and moved his wrists like his dad taught him when he was younger but was unable to remove them. "I can't get out." Shawn said defeated.

Henry flipped Shawn's hands to face palm upward and pointed where Shawn's thumb met his palm. "Now, I have taught you how to pick cuffs and how to slip them off if someone puts them on you too loosely, but if all else fails there is one last thing you can do." He pointed to the joint in Shawn's thumb. "Breaking this bone right here is all that stands between you and anything that fits around your wrist coming off with very little trouble."

Shawn's eyes widened. "Won't that be really painful?" He was seriously wondering if his dad was crazy enough to make him break his thumbs to get out of the hand cuffs.

"I have only had to do it once myself." Shawn blinked and remembered six years ago when his dad returned from a case, bruised and one hand in a cast. "The pain was excruciating. It takes a long time to heal but will likely save your life. Think about it kid. One day you will have to make a decision. What are you willing to do to live?"

Shawn nodded. At 15 "serious Shawn" moments were few and far between, but occasionally they did happen. This was not one of those times….

"Ok dad, good talk. I am going to the arcade now where I am going to put my thumbs to better use than breaking them." Shawn held out his hands and his dad unlocked them.

Shawn was gone the instant they were off. He gave a sarcastic wave and headed to his friend Gus' house. Henry watched him leave then walked back into the house. "Maybe someday I will tell him why I had to do it." Henry thought shaking his head. He hoped to God his son was lucky enough to count this lesson as useless information, but knowing Shawn and the situations he gets into Henry only knew it was a matter of time before he had to learn some hard lessons on his own.

* * *

**The Present**

Kristen's scream hurt Shawn's ears but it completely covered up Shawn's own shout of pain as he broke not one, but both of his thumbs. He was still hopping around silently screaming when he heard some footsteps walking away from the freezer.

"Oh my God it worked!" hops of pain became hops of joy before Shawn realized he was only half done. He had to get his hands out of the shackles first.

"Is he gone?" Kristen asked quietly.

"Yeah he walked off for now. I don't think we have long though." Shawn walked slowly back over to Kristen. He was still fighting to not harm her but breathing through is mouth worked along with focusing on how much his thumbs hurt right now helped keep his mind focused. "Kristen, grab the shackle from my wrist and pull as hard as you can."

She sat up as best she could and got a good grip on the shackle. They both pulled and the metal circle tore off his wrist taking a bit of flesh with it. Shawn's eyes widened and he clenched his teeth in pain but one sound could give them away. They repeated the process with his other hand and quicker than Shawn thought possible, he was free.

Shawn looked down at his torn up hands. They were either not healing or he didn't' heal as fast as he thought he would. "Damn it." He muttered.

Kristen looked up at him in horror. "I won't have to do that will I?"

"No, one stupid move is well and good enough for both of us right now. Plus, Aaron has the key. All I need to do is get to it." Shawn grimaced in pain and backed a bit farther up from Kristen.

"You ok?" She whispered watching Shawn back up as if terrified of her.

Swagger returning to his voice even through the grumbles of pain Shawn said, "Nothing a few alcohol wipes would not cure." He continued to try and find something that he could use to take Aaron out. His keen eyes settled on a pointy stick of wood lying close to a wall. A wall that Aaron thought was completely out of Shawn's reach.

Snuffling, Kristen watched Shawn cautiously bend over and pick something pointy off the ground. Her eyes were adjusting to being in the dark but she could still not see everything clearly. She was also getting very cold and it was hard not to shiver from being in a freezer. She wondered how Shawn was so ok with the cold. "What do we do now? You are free but how are you going to defend us from that guy when you have two broken hands?"

Shawn smiled and brandished the stake in front of him. "I am just going to get a little payback. You know how they say revenge is best served right?" Kristen nodded, "Well what better place to dish it out than a freezer."

* * *

Aaron returned about ten minutes later. He had a large plastic bag in his hand and was whistling a tune. He was bursting with pride for his fledgling. He would be really strong but Shawn really needed to learn when to shut up. The barrage of questions he had to face was enough to drive anyone crazy, immortal or not.

When he opened the freezer door he saw Shawn crouching by the wall and the girl slumped down where she was chained. He had a feeling something was off but could not tell what it was. Shaking the feeling he closed the freezer door and walked over to Shawn. Who didn't even look up as he approached.

"You see? You feel better don't you?" he said in a fatherly tone. He saw Shawn nod but still not look up. "There is nothing to be ashamed of. It is our nature…."

Suddenly Shawn shot up and rammed a stake at Aaron's heart. A split second before it hit Aaron blocked the blow and ripped the stake from Shawn's hand. He dropped it behind him and pushed Shawn up against the wall. He had somehow gotten out of the shackles. Aaron looked at his hands and could still see that they were missing skin where he tore them off.

Shawn gagged and choked against Aaron's arm which had him securely pinned to the wall. "You insolent child! Do you think that I would be taken out by the likes of you? I have been way to tolerant of your antics but enough is enough."

Shawn's eyes flicked past Aaron and he tried to say something. Backing off the pressure Aaron growled at Shawn. "What did you say?"

Panting for air Shawn gasped out. "I… I said…" Aaron leaned closer to hear Shawn's answer when he saw Shawn's eyes harden and lock on to his. "I said SUCK IT!"

Shawn's foot kicked up and hit Aaron right between his legs. Falling back with an animalistic shriek of pain Aaron stumbled and fell backwards over Kristin who was kneeling right behind him. Before Aaron could recover Shawn grabbed the stake and plunged it into his heart. With a wide eyed look of shock, Aaron went completely still.

Shawn frantically dug through Aaron's pockets until he found the key to Kristin's shackles. He handed her the key and Kristin made quick work of getting unshackled.

Still trying to regain his breath from the choke hold, Shawn looked at Kristen with respect and said, "My friend Gus could take some pointers from you about how to be a table." He put a hand out to help her up but she did not take it. Puzzled he saw she was backing up in horror.

"You just killed him…"

"Hey! Whoa whoa! He was trying to kill us!" Shawn said indignantly.

"What was going on here? You just staked him… OH MY GOD! Is he still moving?" Kristen screamed as Aaron's face turned white and his fangs grew.

Thinking quickly, Shawn grabbed the shackles on the floor and hooked him up to them. Just in case. Once done he looked up and Kristen was no longer there. He heard the freezer door close and running steps getting farther away.

In a girly voice Shawn said, "Oh thank you for saving me! I know you just broke your hands to get me out. I will be forever grateful." Scoffing he turned his attention back to Aaron who was watching him from the ground.

Through clenched teeth Aaron hissed, "You will be punished for this."

"You and what undead army tough guy." Kicking some dirt and ice in Aaron's face Shawn turned and strutted from the freezer. He knew he would have to do something about Aaron eventually but for now Shawn had to figure out how he was going to survive long enough to save get to his friends and warn them about the guy who was after him.

Shawn walked out of the warehouse. It was still night and by the looks of things he was still in Santa Barbara. "Where the hell am I going to get blood at this hour?" Shawn thought with some humor as he walked down the street. "I doubt the Seven Eleven serves vampires." Shawn paused his walking and looked up with a glint in his eye. Woody! He had been down in the Coroner's lab enough times to know that he stored jars of blood in the fridge for testing. Now he was just going to have to figure out how to sneak into the Santa Barbara Police Department without being recognized or seen. Being the Head Psychic of the SBPD made him very well known by everyone, so he could just hope that not everyone there heard about his hospitalization or kidnapping yet. With renewed vigor Shawn quickened his pace and smiled. Maybe he would even try out some of his new vampire powers on the way.

* * *

It was almost 2am and Juliet was extremely tired. Her day had been an emotional roller coaster and it had taken a lot out of her. They had just finished putting out an APB on anyone matching Woody's description of Shawn's kidnapper and everyone except Mick looked like they could pass out on the spot. Mick was on the phone again with what seemed like his boss and he was talking in hushed tones away from the group. Earlier it sounded like he had called a girlfriend. Juliet had smiled at that.

They had left Woody's room so he could rest, and had talked for a bit in the hallway. Carlton was just about to drag his partner to the elevator and tell her she needed to sleep when his cell phone rang. Henry and Gus perked up and Mick listened in on the call.

"Detective Carlton Lassiter." He listened for a bit and looked at the exhausted Juliet. "We will be right there." He closed the phone and turned to fill in his partner. "A woman named Kristen Morris just walked into the station. She said she was taken to a warehouse downtown and chained up by a man fitting the description of the person who kidnapped Shawn."

"Was he there?" Gus said urgently.

"Kristen mentioned another man but they didn't tell me much over the phone. O'Hara and I will head to the warehouse to see if we can find anything. You two," Carlton pointed to Henry and Gus. "You can take Magnum PI over there and question Kristen at the station. We will meet up with you when we are done checking the scene."

Mick closed his phone and walked up to the group. He had called Beth and told her he would be back soon and then called Josef to update him. He hung up because he could tell something was going on and Josef was going to see if he knew anyone fitting the description Woody gave of the rogue. Juliet and Carlton rushed towards the elevators before Mick could ask what happened. Henry and Gus approached him.

"We have to go to the station. Apparently someone was kidnapped and was able to escape. It could have something to do with who took Shawn so they wanted us to go question her." Henry explained.

"Alright. Let's go." Mick was used to working mostly alone, except when Beth decided to tag along. Having to wait for others and follow orders was a bit confining. He hoped it he would be able to break from the group and do some digging himself but it seemed everyone wanted to keep a close eye on him. "I'm not the one they need to worry about." Mick thought. For all he knew, depending on what the rogue was doing, Shawn could be the dangerous one now.


	9. Such a Buzz Kill

**Chapter 9- "Such a Buzz Kill"**

Shawn slinked closer to the church. It was going to take him longer to get to the station than he wanted it to because of this little pit stop. About two blocks away from the warehouse, once the adrenaline wore off, he realized he was still in a hospital gown and boxers. He had decided to take the gown off. It would be less conspicuous and with his green boxers it might just look like he was wearing shorts instead of looking like an escaped mental patient. Still, he didn't want the chance of being picked up for indecent exposure, so he headed for a church nearby hoping there were donations that had not been taken in yet. Sure enough when he rounded the corner to the back of the church, a few bags were laying by the rear door.

He quickly found a shirt and pants in his size. Unfortunately, the clothes were all women's. He was able to find some gray androgynous sweatpants but the only shirt he found was a purple hoodie that had the word "SEXY" written in giant glittery letters across the front.

Shawn grimaced while holding it up. "This is going to completely kill my whole vampire image."

He quickly put the clothes on and headed towards the Police Station, happy he was able to at least walk on the sidewalk again rather than jump behind buildings wearing boxers any time someone passed. There weren't many people on the street at this hour so the stares were minimal but everyone gave him a wide berth. Not mainly because of the way he was dressed but the way he growled and hunched over every couple of minutes was enough to make anyone nervous.

Shawn looked up from his latest vision blurring, pain filled, stomach cramp and realized he was standing a block away from the station. "Oh man finally!" he panted. "Now I just have to break into a police station without being seen. Should be easy right?" Shawn was a big fan of irony, even if sometimes he had to ask Gus what it meant.

* * *

Henry, Gus and Mick rushed to the interrogation room as soon as they arrived. Buzz saw and waved at the group. It was his weekly night shift and he only had one hour left so he was finishing up some paperwork.

"Why are they all in such a hurry?" One of the other officers asked nudging Buzz.

"I don't know. Probably has to do with Shawn. O'Hara and Lassiter have been antsy too. Practically ran out of the station twice tonight to get to the hospital." Buzz shrugged.

The officer shook his head. "Hope he is ok. Seems like a good guy. Weird, but a good guy. He brings us coffee and doughnuts every Wednesday."

Smiling, Buzz walked back to his desk. He just happened to look up when he saw a woman in a purple hoodie walk in the door. The woman looked around and quickly disappeared behind one of the wood pillars near the entrance.

Buzz probably wouldn't have given it a second thought if he didn't see the purple top of that same hoodie peeking over one of the desks a second later. Buzz stood up on high alert. "Someone is sneaking into the police station?" He thought puzzled.

He followed the purple hoodie's path as it disappeared around the corner. He went around his desk and carefully started following it, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. He saw the person look over their shoulder and sprint down the stairs towards the cells and interrogation room.

"Uh oh." Buzz said aloud and quickly but quietly sprinted after them. If this person caused trouble, Buzz would make sure he was there to stop them.

* * *

Carlton and Juliet pulled up in front of the seemingly abandoned warehouse around 2:30am. Both were extremely tired but the prospect of possibly finding Shawn was enough to give Juliet a second wind and Carlton hope he would get to shoot someone. They parked half a block away and quietly snuck up towards the main door which stood wide open. Juliet on one side and Carlton on the other, they wordlessly gave the signal to check out inside the door. It was almost like a dance, each knowing automatically what the other was going to do. It was an amazing skill that came with time and trust.

Juliet took low and left, Carlton took high and right.

"Clear!" Juliet said dropping her weapon slightly.

"Clear!" Carlton echoed.

Carlton took out his flash light and searched for the main light switch. The warehouse flooded with fluorescent brightness a moment later. It was not a huge place but was almost completely empty which caused an echo that created the auditory illusion that it was bigger. The only thing in the empty space was what looked like a freezer about 20 feet in. The door was closed.

Taking up defensive stances once more the pair headed for the freezer door. Since it opened outward Carlton grasped the handle and pulled it when Juliet nodded. Frozen air hit warm air causing a wispy cloud of air to rush out. Juliet could see a figure laying in the middle of the freezer which looked to be about a 10 foot square room.

Juliet gasped which caused Carlton to peer in as well. Frozen blood was pooled around the body whose wrists were connected to the floor with shackles. Another longer pair of shackles was lying on the floor nearby. Upon closer inspection they found the body had a wooden handle protruding from its heart.

"What in the hell happened here? You think Spencer could have done this?" Carlton's blue eyes widened at his partner.

"Whatever happened you know as well as I do he probably had no choice... plus we don't even know if this WAS Shawn." Juliet pointed out.

"O'Hara, look at his clothes." Carlton pointed to the man's lab coat which was obviously something a doctor would wear. The man also fit the description of the abductor Woody had given them.

"We better call this in. If Shawn escaped he might be at the station already." Juliet started dialing when a soft groan sounded from the floor.

"Sweet Lady Justice! He is alive?!" Carlton bent down and looked for a pulse.

Juliet followed suit but looked at the stab wound. The stake had to have penetrated almost all the way through the man. "There is no way he is still alive."

Both detectives fell back with uncharacteristic shrieks as the corpses eyes opened. Carlton recovered first and went to work assessing the man's awareness. "Sir! Can you hear me? Can you talk?"

"_Get it out..." _

Working through the shock, Juliet shook her head. "We can't! The only thing keeping you from bleeding out is the fact that it is there."

Looking around, Carlton knew they would have to get out of the freezer. He spotted a key a few feet away. "O'Hara, this might work to unlock him. We have to get him out of here."

"We don't want to move him Carlton, it could kill him."

Carlton sighed, "We don't have a choice, we cannot keep him in here the paramedic's won't have room to work and I don't feel like having him freeze while we wait. Who knows how long he has been in here! His skin is cold. He needs to warm up."

Nodding, Juliet grabbed the tossed key from the air and quickly unlocked the man's arms. Doing their best to keep him level they slowly carried him out of the freezer and onto the concrete. Carlton took out his phone and started to dial 911.

"_Please... take it out..."_ The man's voice was barely a pleading whisper and his hands twitched in the direction of the stake.

"Carlton, maybe we should take it out. OW!" The man had grabbed Juliet's arm and squeezed hard.

Carlton turned towards Juliet's cry of pain and raised his gun at the man. "Let her go!"

"Take it out!" The man demanded through clenched teeth and squeezed Juliet's arm harder.

A crunch sound announced a broken bone and Juliet screamed.

Knowing that it would probably kill the man who had his partner hostage Carlton was more than happy to oblige. Leaning over, gun in one hand, he ripped out the stake. The man took a gasping breath and let Juliet go. A bruise was already forming in the shape of a hand where he grabbed her. Leaning over in pain Juliet held her arm close and grabbed her gun with the other.

"Stay down!" Juliet shouted at the man who was sitting up and panting.

Carlton, who had been expecting him to die almost instantly put his arm in front of Juliet and backed her off, still pointing the gun at the sitting figure.

"He should be dead, this is not normal." Juliet stated the obvious.

"Since when has Spencer gotten us into anything that WAS normal?" Carlton growled.

The man looked at the detectives and smiled. "You know Shawn?" He started to get up.

"Stay on the ground or we will open fire!" Carlton shouted, his finger on the trigger.

Pushing himself to his feet, the man laughed. A low maniacal laugh that chilled both officers to the bone. "Shawn left me... I need to get him back."

"What do you want with Shawn?" Juliet demanded. This guy was obviously crazy and she would not let him anywhere near her boyfriend again.

"He needs me to survive!" Anger flashed across his face. "I made him what he is and he has to come back!"

Carlton could not hide his distain. "What bull crap are you spewing loony?"

Quicker than either of them could comprehend the man jumped straight up into the rafters of the building. His face and eyes went pale and he let out a high pitched shriek of anger. They both opened fire. Bullets ricocheted off metal beams and a few shredded through his body but it did not slow him down. Jumping right at Carlton he slammed into him full force knocking him back. The man picked up Carlton, who groaned painfully.

"You think that actually hurts me?" The man sneered.

Carlton's blue eyes blazed and he emptied the rest of his gun into the man's torso with still no effect. Logic finally failing him Carlton was frozen in shock as the man picked him up and threw him at the wall. He landed in an unconscious heap.

Juliet grabbed her phone and tried to call for back up but the man was there in an instant. He slammed her against a wall and she dropped her gun as he put his hand around her throat. Sniffing deeply he chuckled. "His smell is all over you. I bet he will come for you."

"Let me go!" Juliet kicked and tried to bite his hand but only ended up biting her own lip. A trickle of blood fell down her chin and the man licked it clean, much to Juliet's disgust.

A calculating look crossed the man's features. "Even if he doesn't come, I can still have a little entertainment. Lord knows I could use it."

Juliet screamed in horror as the man's face changed to pale with white eyes.

* * *

Kristen sat shivering under a blanket in the interrogation room when Henry, Gus and Mick walked in. The officer outside said that she had made her way to the station immediately after escaping. She had told the officer at the desk she had been kidnapped and needed help. She did mention that there was another man who was captured when she was brought there but the officer told them she was reluctant to talk about him.

Mick noticed that the room was not meant to be comfortable. The walls were very drab. The large two way mirror would be a bit intimidating, not knowing who was watching you, and there was one table with a couple of chairs sitting across from the girl. Gus and Henry immediately took those leaving Mick to stand.

Kristen looked nervous. "Why does it take so many people to take a statement?" She asked.

Henry, being the best at questioning, was elected in the car to do most of the talking. "My name is Henry Spencer. I am the police consultant liaison for the SBPD." Pointing at Gus he continued. "This is Burton Guster, partner of our psychic consultant."

"Who is he?" Kristen asked when Henry conveniently forgot to introduce Mick, who got the distinct feeling the man did not like him.

"Mick St. John, I am a private detective." He glanced at Henry who rolled his eyes.

"Oh, why so many of you then?" Kristen repeated her question.

Henry didn't want to blurt out about Shawn. Years of being a police officer taught him when interviewing witnesses you waited till they told their story before interjecting anything. You never knew when just saying someone's name will give the victim a false memory, so he played it safe. "We are investigating the abduction of one of our consultants. We believe he may be connected with your kidnapping."

Gus played the urgency card. "He is my friend and Henry's son he was kidnapped from the hospital and probably needs medical care."

Kristen looked down and nodded. Everyone knew this would be hard for her to tell but if they were going to have any chance of finding Shawn they had to know what happened.

Henry leaned forward and folded his hands on the table. "Could you tell us what happened when you were taken?"

Kristen took a shaky breath. "I was walking home from a club when this guy hits me on the head. I was awake but really out of it. He put me over his shoulder and started to run off with me." Tears formed in her eyes.

Mick walked over to Kristen and kneeled by her chair. He put his hands on hers and looked her in the eyes. "I know it was a horrible experience but we need to know what happened."

Kristen nodded, wiping away tears, "Ok."

Henry and Gus stared. Till now they both thought Mick was a hard ass who just cared about getting the job done. Now, in this interrogation room Henry could read the concern in his eyes and how genuine it was. For the first time Henry wondered if this guy actually did _care_ about finding his son.

Gus was merely thinking that there was more to Mick than met the eye. Then he connected it to a movie reference where Donkey told Shrek he was like a parfait because he had layers. Then Gus wanted a parfait. Then Gus thought about Shawn and how much he loved parfaits… Gus started to get teary.

"What is wrong with him?" Kristen sniffled.

Gus tried to hide the emotion in his voice. "I'm a sympathetic crier."

Henry elbowed Gus, still focused on Kristen "Keep going, you are doing great."

Kristen continued, "I must have passed out eventually because I remember waking up when the door slammed as we entered the building. Then we went into a giant walk in freezer and he chained me down."

"He chained you to in a freezer?" Gus got a worried look in his eye, remembering finding Shawn in the fridge.

Mick kept his face stoic but as soon as he heard freezer he knew they had their guy. "Was there anyone else in the freezer with you?"

"Yes. I remember the guy who took me started talking with another guy. They said a bunch of stuff that didn't make sense, but I got the gist of the conversation. My kidnapper wanted the guy in the room with me to kill me." Kristen closed her eyes as tears fell on the table. Her shoulders shook with sobs. "But… but he didn't want to. He got angry. The other guy left us. He said his name. I can't remember it."

Henry rubbed his head. He was getting impatient and if she couldn't remember his name he would just have to keep her talking and maybe she would remember something that would give them a clue as to whether it was Shawn. "It is ok. What happened next? How did you escape?"

"The other guy went quiet for a bit." Kristen reached up and touched the dried blood on her neck. "I felt something running down my neck and touched it. I could have sworn I heard some kind of growl, but… I know this is going to sound weird but it didn't sound human. Then the guy was right in my face. I realized then that he was chained too but he could reach me."

"Did he do anything or say anything?" Henry prodded.

Kristen's eyes looked down. "Yes." She whispered. "He told me to scream."

Crestfallen looks flooded the three men's faces. Henry and Gus knew it could not be Shawn. He would never ever hurt a woman, even if that woman was kicking the crap out of him. Gus knew that from experience.

Mick closed his eyes and shook his head, biting his lip. Shawn seemed like a strong guy but with that set up he wasn't surprised that he went crazy. Mick's sire, who happened to be his ex-wife, had forced him to feed for the first time. Mick looked for any bite marks on visible places but all he saw was a cut on her neck and some dried blood.

"Why on earth would he ask you to scream?" Gus' voice pulled Mick out of his thoughts.

"Because he… I have no idea how… It must have been so painful." Kristen did not know how to put it. "He knew the guy who chained us up was close. He needed me scream to cover up his scream. He… broke his thumbs to get out of his shackles."

Henry smiled and Gus jumped out of his chair with a "Yes!"

Both Mick and Kristen were taken aback by the display of happiness. Seeing this, Henry explained. "That has to be Shawn! I taught him that when he was a teenager. It means he is alive!"

"Shawn! Yes that was his name!" Kristen exclaimed before a look of shame came over her features. "I feel horrible. I just left him there after he saved me. He seemed ok when I left though."

"You taught your kid how to break his hand?" Mick raised an eyebrow.

"Well it worked didn't it?" Henry got a bit defensive and turned back to Kristen. "How did you end up escaping?"

"We pretended I was dead and he was still shackled when the guy came into the room. Shawn attacked him with some sort of knife. I could not see what it was in the dark but it was pointy. I sat up and got on all fours so Shawn could trip him over me. It was his idea. He said I made a better table than his friend." Kristen recalled.

Gus made an indignant tisk noise.

Kristen gave Gus a sheepish look, realizing Shawn had probably meant him.

"The guy had the key on him and after Shawn handed it to me I realized that he had stabbed the man right through the heart."

"Shawn killed a dude?" Gus could not believe it.

Henry hit him upside the head for the outburst.

"He was still moving when I looked down… I saw something but I couldn't be sure. If I didn't know any better I would have thought the guy went very pale and then… grew fangs."

The room went uncomfortably silent.

Mick broke the silence. "You were confused and hurt. The man probably went pale from blood loss." He tried to explain away what she saw.

"Well, the last thing that happened before I ran was Shawn had taken the guy's hands and shackled them where he shackled me up. Why would he do that if the guy was dying?" Kristen looked at each of their faces. No one had an answer for that.

"When did this happen?" Henry asked, looking for some kind of reference time.

Kristen thought a moment. I got here right after it happened and I remember it being around 2:00am."

"It is almost three now. If Shawn escaped why didn't he come here or try to contact one of us?" Gus could see Henry was going out of his mind with worry.

"We should call Juliet and Carlton and let them know. They are probably at the warehouse right now." Gus chimed in.

"Whoa! They went to the warehouse?" Mick whirled to face Gus. When the two Detectives left the hospital Mick was only told they had other business to see too. "We have to get there now!"

"What are you talking about…" Henry was interrupted by a gunshot from inside the station.

Henry and Mick were the first to the door, trained reflexes had their bodies moving before their minds caught up. Gus was a step behind and Kristen gave a short scream and ducked down.

Looking down towards the coroner's office, where the shot came from, they saw a figure with short brown hair and a purple hoodie dashing down the hallway towards them. He stopped when he reached the hallway that split off to the holding cells about 20 feet from where the shocked men stood.

It was Shawn. His mouth and chin were covered in blood along with the front of his shirt. His eyes registered fear and shame as he had to have seen the horrified looks on Henry and Gus' faces. Finally his eyes settled on Mick. A darkness seemed to creep over his features as he glared at the man. He cracked an evil smile and he gave Mick a wave before bolting down the hallway hollering, "Catch me if you can Mick!"


	10. Blood Never Lies

**Chapter 10- "Blood Never Lies"**

**15 minutes earlier:**

Shawn knew where every camera in the precinct was. That was the easy part. The hard part would be sneaking past the five officers on night duty, including Buzz McNab, a uniform cop friend of his who would probably recognize him even with the ridiculous hoodie on.

He waited until he was sure no one was going to come out and bump into him before entering. There were two points he knew he would be caught on camera no matter what he did, coming in the door and going down the stairs to the sub-basement where his destination was. Hopefully with the hood up no one would know it was him.

As he entered he peeked around the corner to see where everyone was and he caught sight of Buzz right away. He was hard to miss even in a crowded station because he was about six and a half feet tall. Another cop was talking to him and he turned to go back to his desk. Shawn darted inside and around a pillar. He had to low crawl in front of desks, ducked behind potted plants and scoot, back to the wall through archways. Finally he got to the stairs. There was no place to hide on them so he sprinted, taking three steps at a time.

The coroner's office was just down the hall from the interrogation room. As he past it a scent stopped him in his tracks.

"Dude, why does the hallway smell like flowers?" Shawn said to himself, wrinkling his nose in confusion. He could have sworn he saw a flash of Gus before blinking and shaking his head. "That's just weird."

Shawn continued down the hallway to Woody's office. Fumbling with the doorknob he walked into the examination room and almost fell over in pain. Holding the door to help himself upright, Shawn got shakily to his feet. He was so close he could almost smell the blood…

"Wait a minute." Shawn gingerly sniffed. "That's not blood." Whirling around quickly earned him a smushed nose as he ran into a wall of blue. Buzz McNab stood right in front of him.

"I'm sorry mam but I am going to have to escort you out…" Buzz got a closer look at the woman, who wasn't a woman at all. "SHAWN? What are you doing here?" Buzz looked him up and down. "What are you wearing?"

Shawn's voice came out croaky and not his usual clear charismatic drawl. "Buzz, hey buddy. I was just following my psychic instincts and they brought me down here for something important."

Shawn put his trademark hand to his head right before clutching his stomach and having to grip the side of the metal exam table. He was so close… the blood was right in the fridge five feet away.

"I heard you were in the hospital!" Buzz watched Shawn with great concern. "Everyone here is going out of their minds with worry."

Shawn tried to speak but his grip on the table failed and he fell weakly to his knees. Buzz stooped his large frame over and took Shawn under his arms to stand him up. Unfortunately, the action brought Shawn's head right at the nape of Buzz's neck.

Shawn struggled weakly. "No, Buzz! You need to put me down!" He closed his eyes. "Don't breathe!" he thought.

"Shawn don't go boneless on me! We have to call an ambulance and get you better. We can't have you missing any doughnut Wednesdays." Buzz knew humor usually made Shawn feel better in any situation but his lack of reaction freaked him out.

"Buzz…" With one last protest Shawn opened his eyes. They were instantly drawn to the pulsing artery at Buzz's throat. He couldn't fight it anymore, he had tried. God knows he had tried. He came so close too. His fangs grew and his vision focused on the target of his attack. Shawn's mouth opened as Buzz continued to try and get him to stand on his own.

"C'mon Shawn, let's get you back to your dad. He is in the interrogation room."

A hair's breadth from sinking his fangs into Buzz, Shawn registered what he said. "My dad is here?"

"Yeah." Buzz said still trying to sound upbeat. "Gus is here too."

Feeling incredibly ashamed at what he was about to do Shawn almost missed what Buzz said next. "Oh, and that private investigator guy who was looking for you earlier is with them."

Shawn gripped Buzz's shoulders, his nails digging in a little. He took two deep breaths and forced himself to calm down. "Ow Shawn! You have quite a grip." Buzz complained.

Sweating and shaking, but fangless, Shawn's serious face looked at Buzz. "What guy that was looking for me?"

Beyond being freaked out, now Buzz was actually afraid. He was one of five people to have seen Shawn at his worst, when Juliet and his then girlfriend Abigail were taken hostage by the serial killer Yin. He knew Shawn's face only registered this much intensity when lives were on the line.

Stuttering Buzz answered, "He…uh… he came looking here for you earlier. He said he wanted to hire you for help. He must have run into your dad because apparently he has been hanging around all night." He looked questioningly at Shawn, "You didn't come here with them did you? They got here about ten minutes ago. Came barreling through the station."

Shawn pushed away from Buzz and wiped a hand across his mouth. It was an unconscious tic he did when he was nervous, and at this moment he was incredibly nervous. The guy, who was trying to find him to take him out was traipsing around with is dad and best friend. Shawn remembered his name was Mick. "Not cool." Shawn thought with dismay. He had to do something about that guy, but first things first. He needed to get the officer away from him immediately.

Playing on Buzz's good nature and willingness to help, Shawn pretended to have a vision. He used his real pain and knew it had to have been his most compelling performance yet. "Oh! Oh no! Buzz! The thing I came to get is in there!" Shawn pointed to the back coroner's office. "If you don't get a beaker with blue liquid in it someone is going to die!" He wasn't exactly lying. If Buzz didn't get out of his reach now he was a goner.

A panic stricken Buzz opened the door and rushed into the room to grab the item, which actually was just a beaker full of Woody's favorite Gatorade flavor. Once he was past the door, Shawn pounced forward, slammed the door shut, locked it and just for good measure, broke the handle off his side of the door so he would not be able to get at Buzz if he wanted to.

The look of hurt and betrayal on his friend's face was more than Shawn could stand. "I'm sorry Buzz!" he called over his shoulder as he stumbled towards the fridge. "I will explain later and make it up to you in smoothies and cookies!"

Pulling open the refrigerator door, Shawn looked in and smiled. "Woody, I love you, you creepy dude!" he shouted. Inside the fridge were two and a half fresh hospital packets of blood. He was too far gone to really try and think why in the world Woody would have these here, but his mind, finely trained to notice the slightest detail, did it for him. He remembered Woody saying he was testing Shawn's blood with fresh blood to see what would happen. He had to have requested these for it.

Laughing once again at the irony of the situation and ignoring Buzz kicking at the locked door, Shawn grabbed all three bags. He stuffed two in his hoodie and held onto the half full one, watching the red liquid slosh around inside.

Silence followed by a muffled, "What the hell?" came through the door.

Not wanting Buzz to see what he was about to do, Shawn went around the opposite side of the examination table and sat down. Now that he had the blood he was a bit reluctant to drink it. Did he squirt it into his mouth or bite through the plastic? Did he swallow or did his fangs suck it up like sippy straws? Wishing he would have asked Aaron when he had the chance, he opened the bag and closed his eyes, squirting the red liquid into his mouth.

Swallowing was a natural reflex but once he actually paused to taste the blood, it was amazing! He could not drink fast enough. He paused only to suck in gasps of air before drinking again. It took him only a few seconds to finish the half gone blood bag.

Seconds later he grasped his chest and gasped. A tight pain radiated from his chest up towards his head, giving him the feeling of a bad ice cream headache. It caused him to groan and clutch his head. His heart was beating incredibly fast. His extremities started to tingle as if they had fallen asleep and were finally waking up. Breathing heavily he fumbled for the second bag. He drank this one slower. Savoring the smooth texture until a gunshot and the sound of shattering glass surprised him and made him spit out an entire mouthful of blood, spilling it on his chin and clothes.

"Damn it.!" He swore and jumped up dropping the blood bag and turning towards where he heard the shot. Buzz had shot through the glass and he was reaching through to unlock the door from the other side. Shawn decided it was time to go and beat feet down the hallway towards the emergency exit in the holding cells. As he came to the halfway point between the interrogation room and the coroner's office, he was about to skid around the corner to the holding cells when people burst from the interrogation room right ahead of him.

Henry, Gus and a young man around Shawn's age with brown wavy hair who could only be Mick caught sight of him and stared at him in utter shock. Shawn knew he must look horrifying. He so wanted to explain everything that happened but first he had to get Mick away from them. Shawn didn't have any reason to trust Aaron but damned if he wasn't right about the guy being after him, so he must be right about him being willing to hurt people that get in his way. "Well, let's go then." Shawn thought as he shot an evil grin at Mick and waved. He turned and sprinted to the emergency exit yelling behind him, "Catch me if you can Mick!" hopefully he would take the bait and follow.

* * *

Shawn was down the hall and out the emergency exit door before he realized that this had to have been a really bad idea. Mick was almost right behind him and he was damn fast. Shawn was not exactly a snail either. He had never run so fast in his life, and even though he was passing everything at a rapid pace, it felt like he could see in slow motion. He was used to seeing every little detail but this was to a whole new level. It was like his capacity for sensory input had quadrupled. For someone like Shawn it was a huge overload.

As Mick started to close in, Shawn decided to deploy his time tested tactic of not going in a straight line. It was harder to do in the city, where buildings lined the street and there were few places to hide besides the clichéd dumpster. As he ran Shawn put a hand to his head trying to think of a way out of this. He remembered something Aaron said during the marathon questioning. Shawn had been trying to annoy him but he might have given some useful info….he had asked, "Will I be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?" Aaron had said, "We can jump pretty high." Wanting to see what he could do, Shawn headed for a building and took a running jump at it. Looking more like "The Greatest American Hero" when he flew than a smooth predatory night stalker, Shawn flailed his hands as he hit the building a floor below the top and scrambled to grab the edge of a window. Looking down and seeing Mick watching him Shawn figured he had to have jumped at least three floors up.

"Man, did you see that!? I could totally own at the Olympics!" Shawn shouted as he tried to haul himself up on the ledge.

If it had been any other situation, Mick would have found what had just happened funny, but in Mick's eyes Shawn was past saving. He had killed someone in cold blood. He had captured enough rogues to know that their personality never disappeared when they went crazy. He took a deep breath and tried to focus on getting his job done, rather than on how much he hated it right now.

Shawn saw Mick make a practiced leap straight towards him. "Oh crap!" Shawn exclaimed as he let go of the ledge and fell straight down, landing right on his feet.

Mick landed on the fire escape right below where Shawn was two seconds before. "Are you kidding me?!" Mick looked over the edge to see Shawn scampering down another alley.

Deciding on a different tactic, Mick hauled himself up on the roof and started chasing him from above. Shawn took the chance to glance over his shoulder. He did not see Mick chasing him anymore. Still running but looking around, he noticed a shadow moving up ahead of him. Figuring it out and looking up, he saw Mick running over rooftops and he got an idea. Shawn kept his pace steady and straight while he watched the shadow. Mick tracked his quarry's progress with practiced ease, and leaped at Shawn.

Seeing the shadow move, Shawn instantly changed directions and Mick crashed into the ground and hit a few garbage cans. Shawn took the opportunity to duck behind a building and watch silently. Mick stood, shaking refuse from his clothes and pain from his limbs. He was starting to think Shawn actually was psychic. "How did he know to dodge? He was facing the ground!" Mick looked around and could not see anything. He figured Shawn had to be close, but was playing possum.

"You know, it didn't have to be this way!" Mick shouted. He could at least try and lure him out. "Who knows, if he decides to come quietly there still could be a chance." Mick thought hopefully.

"No one had to die! You made that choice!" Mick continued. "If you come out now, peacefully I won't hurt you and no one else will be hurt!"

Shawn stared in shock then leaned back against the wall closing his eyes in despair. Mick had just admitted to killing someone, and would hurt someone else if he didn't come out. "Oh God. Who did he kill to try and get to me?" Shawn thought frantically. He had not seen Juliet or Lassiter in a while, Woody was at the hospital… it could have been anyone. What if it was Juliet and he was not there for her? Shawn blamed himself. He had gotten there too late to protect his friends. He clenched his jaw and decided he was done running. "If this guy wants me to come out… no problem."

When Shawn opened his eyes they were white, then he stepped out of the shadows. Mick heard a noise and turned towards it. Shawn was standing a few feet away from him, fists clenched and looking furious. "Dude, you said the wrong thing!"

Shawn bared his fangs and with a screech like roar he leapt low and caught Mick in the stomach, not quite bowling him over. Mick brought up a knee and caught Shawn in the face. Feeling his nose break Shawn yelped in pain and gripped it which left him open for another punch from Mick that sent him sprawling.

As Shawn was trying to get off the ground, Mick reached in his jacket and pulled out a knife with a long blade and a weighted tip. Shawn's eyes widened as he saw the small sword.

"Where the hell did that come from?"

"It's custom." Mick said simply.

Moving into a crouching position Shawn's tone turned sarcastic, "Oh, the little vampire has to use a knife. Can't manage to fight me on your own huh?"

For a second, Mick's features showed the regret he was feeling and Shawn saw it. Steeling his resolve Mick replied, "I didn't bring this out to fight you." Mick had designed the knife for one real purpose. The only way to kill a vampire was with fire, or to remove their heads.

A wave of realization hit Shawn that Mick really was going to kill him, and he would never be able to see the people he loved again. For Shawn, that was worse than dying.

As Mick aimed the knife at Shawn's head, Shawn remembered how he fought Gus over a dagger and the move Gus had used to get it out of his hand. Crouching low Shawn did a low roundhouse kick that sent the knife skittering across the alley. Both Mick and Shawn dived for the dagger, Mick getting there first. He swiped Shawn across the chest and opened a slash right through the glittery "Sexy" of the purple hoodie. Backing up and looking down at it, Shawn said, "I never liked this shirt anyway." before jumping at the knife in Mick's hands. As they grappled, Shawn slammed his heel down on Mick's foot and elbowed him in the face. Releasing the knife Mick stumbled back into a wall.

Shawn pointed the knife threateningly at Mick who put up his hands in a placating gesture. Shawn growled and moved forward in a combat stance almost pinning him to the wall with the large knife.

"Who did you kill?" Shawn demanded.

Mick, taken aback by the question got a confused look on his face. "What are you talking about?"

"You said no one else had to die if I came with you, ergo, you killed someone! Who was it? Was it Juliet?" Shawn aimed the sword closer to Mick's neck.

"I never killed anyone! I was talking about you." Mick saw Shawn's eyebrows rise. "You killed and fed on someone at the police station."

Shawn was about to answer the ridiculous accusation when he heard a nose of someone approaching.

"Shawn?"

Mick's eyes turned back to normal and fangs retracted as they both turned to look towards who spoke. Gus was staring wide eyed at his best friend covered in blood and holding a knife to Mick's neck. "Shawn what the hell are you doing and what the HELL are you wearing?"

Completely forgetting Mick Shawn turned to Gus, who backed up as he approached. He noticed there was something wrong with his friend's face. "Gus. I can explain everything. I didn't…" Shawn got pitched forward by Mick who took advantage of Gus' distraction. Mick got an arm around Shawn's throat and started to squeeze.

Gus instinctually started to make a move to help Shawn but Mick cowed him with a look. "He isn't your friend anymore! Killing that person at the police station proved it!"

Shawn made some choking sounds as Gus spoke up. "No one at the police station is dead! Buzz got locked in a room and fired a shot to break the glass and get out!"

"What? Than where did all the blood on his face and clothes come from?" Mick questioned, not letting up on his choke hold.

Reaching a hand into the hoodie's pocket, Shawn pulled out the last bag of hospital blood he had put in there earlier. He managed to choke out, "From Woody…" Mick instantly released Shawn and backed up. Finally believing he had harmed no one.

Gus' eyes were hooked on the bag of blood. "Woody was right, you have gone crazy. You even put in contacts and vampire teeth? Really Shawn?" He looked up and saw the hurt on Shawn's face. "Look, we will get you the best help, I will come see you every day, everything will be ok buddy."

"Gus. I am not crazy! I am actually a vampire." Shawn pointed at Mick, "Him too!"

That was the last straw for Gus. He pointed right at Shawn and started his rant. "Mick has spent all day with us trying to find you! You were supposed to be kidnapped and then your dad when ballistic when you showed up at the station without telling anyone! As it was I had to follow your ass out here in the middle of the night and find you trying to kill someone!"

"I was told he was out to kill me and would be willing to hurt you guys to get to me!" Shawn said angrily back to Gus.

"Is that why you attacked…" Mick started before the friends turned in his direction.

"SHUT IT!" They yelled before going back to arguing.

Mick backed off and decided to let them duke it out. He was just happy in the fact that he knew Shawn had not killed anyone and would be ok.

"Ok Shawn." Gus placated his insane friend. "I believe you… let's get back to the station and your dad and I can get you some more blood…" Gus looked to Mick for support in playing along.

Mick shook his head. It was never easy to let someone you care about know what you are when you are a vampire. There is always the fear that they won't see you for who you are anymore. His girlfriend Beth had found out the hard way when she found him gravely injured in his home sucking down blood bags as fast as he could. She eventually came to terms with the truth of what he was, but he had seen it go the other way too.

Shawn turned and handed Mick's knife back and nodded. They both knew that neither was a danger to the other anymore having realized their huge mix up. "I'll get back to you in a minute."

Shawn then stepped towards Gus, "I can prove it to you but you might want to sit down buddy."

"I'll stand." Gus wanted to be able to run if need be. If his best bud was this out of his mind he didn't know what to expect.

Shawn stepped up to Gus and concentrated. Initially, Gus was less than impressed. Shawn felt his fangs start to retract and he knew it was working. He opened his eyes showing the bright hazel Gus was used to. That's when Gus took off like a scared jackal down the street.

Mick cocked his head in Gus' direction. "I would go get him if I were you."

Shawn took off catching up to Gus easily and stopping right in front of him. "Gus I won't hurt you!"

Gus turned the other way but Shawn was instantly there again. "You need to calm down."

Holding both hands out with his fingers in the shape of a cross Gus backed up. "Don't eat me! I… uh…just ate garlic at the station! Wouldn't want to poison you or anything."

"That is really hurtful Gus." Shawn said with a pout, "You should be ready and willing to be my vampire slave for eternity. Now where am I going to find another mind slave…"

"That's not funny Shawn!" Gus dropped his hands. "And vampires don't have mind slaves!"

Shawn knew Gus too well and knew he would never pass up a chance to correct him. The tension of the moment was gone but it was followed up by a silent awkwardness that was almost as uncomfortable.

"So," Gus spoke first. "The blood from the hospital did this?"

"Yeah, been a vampire for almost three whole days and all I got was this lousy shirt." Shawn pulled at the purple hoodie.

"It kind of ruins the whole vampire image." Gus observed.

"That's what I said." Shawn smiled.

Mick came walking up and saw the two were talking. They both looked at him as he approached.

"Mick, no offense about the whole sword thing. I hope this doesn't come between us and our relationship." Shawn grinned at him.

"None taken."

"Mick, you are a vampire too?" Gus asked and Mick nodded. "Damn, I couldn't tell."

"We are a private bunch. We don't like too many people knowing about us." Mick explained.

"Well I am still trying to figure out how I am going to tell Jules about this." Shawn wined.

At the mention of Juliet, Mick's eyes widened and he got a worried look on his face. "Oh no."

Getting defensive, Shawn said, "Oh no… what do you mean Oh no. You can't just say Oh no. What happened to Jules?"

Gus realized Mick's problem. "Juliet and Lassiter went to the warehouse where you were kidnapped to. They have been gone about a half hour already."

Shawn growled in frustration, "I left Aaron there chained up and staked! If they have not reported something by now then they are in trouble!" Shawn looked at Mick, "The station is only four blocks from here. Did you bring your car?" Mick nodded. "Then let's go! SHOTGUN!" Shawn took off running but not as fast as he could have.

"Shawn! That's not fair, I can't run as fast as you!" Gus hollered after Shawn.

Mick caught up with Shawn who looked deep in thought. "Why aren't you in more of a hurry? Isn't she your girlfriend?"

"I know Jules. If she hasn't reported back that means Aaron already has them. I don't usually say this, but we need some sort of plan. I can't lose her Mick. The thought of her is the only thing that has kept me sane through all of this."

"I will help you get her back. No matter what it takes." Mick could see Shawn would not stop until Juliet was safe because Mick knew that feeling too. He had given up everything to save Beth when she was captured. That is what they were going to need if they were going to survive this. If Aaron was as old as Josef said he was, this was not going to be easy.


	11. Facing the Facts

**Chapter 11- "Facing the Facts"**

Shawn, Gus, and Mick got back to the station within a few minutes and headed straight for Mick's car. Shawn saw that it was a black vintage Mercedes convertible. He turned to Mick and asked, "Leather interior?"

"Oh yeah." Mick smugly replied.

"Sweet." Looking towards Gus Shawn asked. "Any luck?"

On the way back Gus had called both Juliet and Lassiter's phones with no answer. "That confirms it. They would not ignore that many phone calls unless something is wrong." Gus put a hand on Shawn's back. "We will get them back, don't worry."

They were all about to get in the car when the trio spotted a figure sprinting in their direction. It was Henry. Shawn made an undignified squeak of surprise as Gus pushed him roughly behind another vehicle and turned to face Henry's approach.

"Guys, any sign of him?" Henry gasped out breathlessly as he took in Mick's disheveled appearance caused by the fight. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Tripped into some garbage. No damage done, just a little scuffed up." Mick admitted. Henry glared at Mick then turned to Gus.

Gus squirmed under his gaze, he was never able to successfully lie to Harry. That is what he usually had Shawn for. He nodded in agreement with Mick. "Was quite the tumble. Took me a while to help him limp back."

"Gus, where is he? What did he do to convince you to cover for him?" Henry looked around the parking lot for any sign of his son.

"What makes you think we are covering for him?" Mick asked with a raised eyebrow.

Henry rubbed his head and grumbled, "Because he has taken advantage of Gus almost his whole life rather than face up to his own problems."

Shawn knew his dad would not give up. Cursing silently he peeked around the back of a vehicle and could see the distress on his dad's face. He would have to tell him sooner or later what happened and sooner was better. Plus, he figured his dad might just be able to help with the rescue mission.

Shawn sneaked up quickly behind his dad, he wanted to at least have a little fun with his big reveal. Gus and Mick saw him and gave him expressions that clearly meant, "Don't do it."

"And another thing…" Henry started before seeing the expressions of the men standing in front of him. Following their gazes he turned around coming face to face with a Shawn.

Blood still covered his mouth and shirt. A new stream of it that was still wet had trickled down from his nose, which had healed on the way back to the parking lot.

"Hey Dad." Shawn leaned against a vehicle, "Did you have something you wanted to say to me?"

Henry felt a huge range of emotions towards his wayward son and it showed on his face as it changed from surprise to concern, then to anger. Finally when Shawn thought his father was going to punch him in the face himself, Henry grasped Shawn in a tight bear hug. After a moment of hesitation, Shawn returned the hug.

Stepping back Henry took in Shawn's appearance. "Shawn, I don't know what is going on, but from what Buzz told me, you need some help kid. Drinking blood? What is the matter with you?" Henry grasped his son by the arms facing him. "We need to get you to a hospital."

Shawn rolled his eyes. "Dad, a hospital isn't going to help me right now."

"I didn't mean that type of hospital Shawn. This isn't some sort of childhood fantasy you and Gus like to play at. I can deal with those." Henry started to lead Shawn away.

"Henry, you should listen to what he has to say." Mick stepped forward and tried to reason with him.

"Look, thanks for finding my son and all, but I don't know you. I don't need you fueling his delusions." Henry poked his finger into Mick's chest.

"I suppose you are disappointed in me again. Go figure." Sarcasm dripping from Shawn's voice.

Henry glared at Shawn. "I thought you were dead Shawn, and here you are traipsing around covered in blood. Tell me that isn't a problem and I will let you go right now."

Shawn yanked out of his grip. "I don't have a lot of time to explain what happened Dad! Jules and Lassie haven't been answering their phones and they haven't checked in with anyone. Gus and Mick said they went to the warehouse I was taken to and if that is the case they are in serious trouble."

"Why?" Henry asked, "The girl you were captured with said you killed the guy that took you."

"Kristen? She is here?" Gus and Mick nodded. "Well could you tell her from me that next time we are captured in a freezer together it is her turn to break her hands."

Henry grabbed at Shawn's hands. He had completely forgotten about it and knew Shawn would need medical attention for them soon. "Mick, Gus and I can get Juliet and Lassiter. You need to get your injuries checked out."

"Dad you are not listening, as usual. The guy who took me wasn't normal and he wasn't dead. Jules is in a lot of danger from this guy and we have to go now!" Shawn headed for the vehicle as Henry's hand grabbed him by the arm.

"Don't walk away from me Shawn!" Henry shouted at his son.

Mick saw what was coming from Shawn's posture. He whipped around to face his dad, eyes milky white and teeth bared. Mick had experience with new vampires and he was surprised Shawn was able to keep his emotions in check for even this long.

"Don't grab me!" Shawn snarled and yanked his arm away.

Henry fell back almost directly into Gus' arms. Henry quickly backed away from all three men, his gaze shifted between Gus and Mick looking for some sort of explanation. "What happened to my son!?"

Shawn sniffed and could smell his dad's fear. He was instantly ashamed. He hadn't meant to scare or hurt him. "Well, I guess the vampire is out of the bag." Shawn knew it was a lame attempt at humor but it was all he could think to say.

"Shawn, there are no such thing as vampires. There can't be!" Henry pointed out, still keeping his distance.

"Trust your eyes dad, the guy that did this to me has my Jules and I need all the help I can get to save her." Shawn's eyes darkened and turned back to their normal brownish green. "I promise I will tell you everything later, but right now I am going. With you or without you." Shawn walked towards the car.

"Shawn!" Henry shouted causing Shawn to turn around, "You better have a good story for this. I wouldn't want to think I was losing my mind for no reason."

Shawn grinned and turned to see Gus sitting in the front seat waiting. "Dude I called shotgun! You have broken a sacred rule of carpooling!"

"I don't know what you are talking about Shawn. I just figured you wanted to sit next to your dad." Gus had a smug look on his face.

Shawn grumpily got in the backseat along with Henry who still seemed to be wary of him. Mick got in himself and started the engine. "You are going to have to tell me where the place is Shawn."

Putting his hand to his head he retraced his steps back to the warehouse. "Got it. Just follow this road a bit." He pointed down the almost deserted main road.

Squealing out of the police station Mick glanced at Shawn in the rear view mirror. "So what do you know about the guy who took you?" Mick needed all of the information he could get so he could make some sort of plan to get the guy.

"His name is Aaron, he is a doctor and… oh yeah, he is crazy. Like 'I'm saving you by chaining you up and driving a stake through your chest.'" Shawn said in a low mocking voice.

"He staked you?" Gus asked wide eyed. "Shouldn't that kill you?"

Mick explained, "It only paralyzes us. We recover but it is very draining. Which is why Shawn is worried. Juliet and Carlton could have stumbled upon the guy Shawn staked and let him up."

"Hold on one second… Mick is a vampire too?" Henry said in disbelief.

Shawn scoffed, "Dad, he was looking for me the whole time so he could help me through this." Shawn went back to talking to Mick "The guy was also really clingy. Almost treated me like I was his kid or something." Henry made an indignant noise.

"Vampires usually feel some protectiveness for their fledglings, but some take it so far as to think of it as being reborn and the sire is the parent.

"Who was your sire Mick?" Gus was curious.

"My ex-wife turned me on our wedding night."

"If that is the case it brings the term Odysseus complex to a whole new level." Shawn wrinkled is nose.

"It's Oedipus complex Shawn." Gus blurted.

Shawn shrugged "I've heard it both ways." Shawn rubbed at his face, the dried blood felt weird.

"Shawn, for God's sake wash your face. You look like a crazy person." Henry scolded.

Shawn wiped his face off with the hoodie. "Gus how does it look now?"

Looking over his shoulder, Gus pursed his lips. "You are going to need some wet wipes."

Shawn sighed and stared out the window, sitting up straighter, he exclaimed and pointed at a building, "That's it! Stop!"

Mick ignored him and kept going.

"Wait, what are you doing? That was it!" Shawn complained.

"If I stop right in front of the place Aaron will hear us. We need surprise to get him… and some more info." As Mick stopped he flipped open his phone and called Josef.

A loud bang resonated through the phone as the line was picked up. "Mick, not a good time!" Josef shouted as two more bangs cracked in Mick's ear.

Mick winced at the loudness and everyone in the car's attention was on the conversation. "Those are gunshots!" Gus exclaimed.

"What is going on Josef?" Mick was worried for his friend.

"They broke into my building! You know the new turn I am babysitting? His friends think I kidnapped and brainwashed him. Apparently they run some sort of Security Company. They aren't happy Mick!" Josef sounded more annoyed than scared. A shattering noise caused Josef to groan, "YOU ARE PAYING FOR THAT VASE!" he roared.

"I would love to help but I am dealing with my own issues. I found Shawn, and the rogue's name is Aaron." Mick took the phone away from his ear as more gunshots nearly deafened him.

"Aaron?!" Josef questioned, "Are you sure? I heard he was dead!"

Shawn leaned into the phone, "What do you mean he is dead?"

"A few months ago his house burnt down. Not sure who did it but I was told everyone died. He was always a bit of a head case, and a traditionalist if you get my meaning Mick. You need to be…" The line cut out.

"Son of a bitch." Mick grumbled.

"Your friend going to be ok?" Henry asked.

"I am not too worried about him but I will have to get going after we get your friends." Mick put his phone away.

"What exactly… is a traditionalist vampire? Cape? Accent? Aaron didn't seem to have that going for him." Shawn pointed out.

"Traditionalist means feed from humans and has an extended family of fledglings. They tend to live in groups…" Everyone looked at Shawn who had a look of utter horror on his face at the realization of what Aaron had intended for him.

Henry was the first to voice his thoughts, "You are saying he picked my son to be part of a male vampire harem?"

"Don't you dare put it like that dad!" shouted Shawn.

Gus cocked his head, "That's what it sounds like to me."

Not finding this funny at all he punched Gus in the arm none too gently and got out of the vehicle. Gus was about to follow when Mick stopped him. "You might want to give us a couple minutes."

Nodding, Gus watched Mick get out and follow Shawn a few feet away from the car.

"They are just trying to cheer you up you know." Mick motioned Shawn over to the trunk.

"Dude, I know but it's just a lot to process." Shawn ran his hands through his hair. Mick smirked at the way he looked just like his dad when he did it, minus the hair part.

Mick opened his trunk. Inside were a small cooler and a suitcase. Shawn raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me vampires keep day bags, that would be just wrong."

"I like to think of it as an overnight bag." Mick replied, opening the suit case and tossing a shirt to Shawn who mumbled his thanks. The cooler held five larger packs of blood. "Finish the bag in your pocket and then drink this one." Mick handed him one of the bags. "I know you are in a hurry but you need to be ready for what we have to do."

Fishing the blood pack from the hoodie, he figured this is why he told the others to stay in the vehicle. Shawn fidgeted a bit as Mick watched him with the blood. Turning around and facing away, Shawn fumbled open the bags and chugged both of them in record time. He didn't feel the high he got from the first drink but he did feel a bit more refreshed.

As he turned around he saw Mick was finishing his own bag. Looking at the other three Shawn asked, "Why do you carry so much with you? We don't drink gallons or anything do we?" He took off the hoodie and threw it in the trunk before putting the spare shirt on.

Mick laughed at the question. "No, I would say without injury a pint or two a day is just fine. I brought more for when I found you." Mick dug farther in the suit case and pulled out a gun.

Shawn cocked his head and made his 'clue face' looking for any deception tells in Mick's features. "You really weren't planning on killing me were you?"

"I was really hoping not to, especially after meeting your friends. Speaking of…" Mick handed the gun to Shawn, "Did you really shoot out a truck's radiator while on the hood of a car going 70mph after being shot?"

"Lassie telling war stories again?" Mick nodded. "Yeah, my dad tried to teach me to be a good little detective. I don't think I lived up to all his expectations but I think by now he has just learned to go with what he could get."

"By that you mean you being psychic." Mick observed.

"Yeah. I am usually a bit more impressive but with everything going on my psychic vibes are off." Shawn walked around the front of the car and knocked on the window startling Gus. "You guys coming or what?"

* * *

Juliet woke abruptly. The shock to her system and bump to her head caused her to pass out for what she thought were a few minutes. It was cold in the warehouse and she noticed the freezer door was still wide open. Hearing her cell phone ring, she figured that is what woke her up. She tried to reach it but realized her hands were cuffed. Slivers of pain radiated down her arm at the movement. Her wrist had to be broken where the man had grabbed it.

"Welcome back detective O'Hara." The man greeted her with a sly smile. Juliet jumped at the voice and tried to move away. "I took the liberty of reading your badge while you slept. I am Aaron by the way, pleased to meet you." Juliet saw him wipe fresh blood from his hands onto his doctor's coat.

Seeing where she was looking he glanced at a body lying in the same position he landed in, only there was a small pool of blood around his head. "Carlton!" Juliet shouted.

"Yes, the blood came from him. I think the impact with the wall may have put him in a coma." Aaron licked his fingers and Juliet cringed. "I didn't want it to go to waste. The gaping chest wound Shawn left me with needed some attention." He said bitterly.

This man was crazy Juliet easily concluded. Woody had said something about Shawn thinking he was a vampire but what she figured was really going on is this guy gave Shawn something to make it appear that way. There were no vampires. She had proved that a few months ago when everyone else seemed to go over the deep end. She alone had kept her wits about her. She wasn't about to lose them now.

"What kind of sick infatuation do you have with Shawn?" Juliet spat, still not taking her eyes off her partner's still body.

"Someone sounds jealous." Aaron mocked and raised his eyebrows. Juliet glared daggers at him. "Well don't be. That would be just sick. I only did what I did to save him."

"And what exactly did you do besides poison him and abduct him from a hospital. I wouldn't call that saving anything." Juliet gave Aaron a confused look.

"None of you understand what I am trying to do!" Aaron towered over Juliet. He quickly composed himself, "I picked Shawn because he would have died."

Squirming uncomfortably in her spot on the floor, Juliet snorted. "I was there! After his accident the doctors said he lost a lot of blood but would be ok."

Aaron looked at Juliet with contempt and curled his lip. "I have been around for hundreds of years. I have lived through countless wars, seen many injuries. I am a doctor after all." Moving closer to Juliet he sniffed her. "I can smell death detective. What the doctor's didn't tell you was that due to blood loss and the tourniquet that needed to be applied to Shawn's arm, he most likely would have lost it to necrosis in a day. His arm was already dying from the lack of blood when I visited him." Juliet closed her eyes and turned away from Aaron's gaze but he continued, "After he lost the arm his weakened immune system would have shut down shortly after, no matter how much blood he was given to replace the amount he lost. He had two days at the most."

"Liar!" She shouted and spat in his face.

Aaron lifted a hand to smack her but stopped. He needed her alive. Aaron knew one hit would probably break her neck, and live bait worked best.

"I'm surrounded by ingrates. I admit, I am not the best parent but I did try to protect him. The man hunting him would have killed him like the others had I not gotten there first."

Juliet put the pieces together and gasped, "Mick!"

"I took him just in time." Pride seeped into Aaron's voice. "Now he is out there, alone. I doubt he stayed hungry for long though. There are so many people to choose from." He chuckled darkly.

"Shawn would never hurt anyone!" Juliet knew her man.

Aaron shrugged. "Well if he didn't he would be dead by now, and he is not. I can tell."

Aaron walked over to the unconscious Carlton and sat next to him, absentmindedly dipping his fingers in the pooled blood and licking them. Juliet was doing her best to not throw up at the sight.

"You are a hypocrite." Juliet saw Aaron give her a death look. "You save people and then send them out to kill others."

Aaron glared and dipped his whole hand into Carlton's blood and gave it a savagely theatrical lick. "We all have our issues."

That's when Juliet lost her lunch.


	12. Turning Point

**Chapter 12- "Turning Point"**

A block away from the warehouse they made their rescue plan. Mick didn't want anyone else to get hurt so he did his best to explain to Shawn, Henry and Gus how vampires fought.

"When vampires are fighting each other, we tend to grapple and throw. We heal incredibly fast so the point of fighting is to disorient long enough to either stake," Mick handed Gus a wooden stake. "Or cut off heads."

Henry looked at the stake in Gus's hand. "Well how do vampires fight humans?"

Shawn saw the look Mick gave Henry and got it right away. "They don't."

"That's right." Mick pointed at the two humans. "You can shoot, or cause a distraction but your main goal is to grab the hostages while I keep Aaron busy. Do not get close to him. One hit could kill you."

Shawn shifted uncomfortably as he saw his father and Gus look at him. It was slowly sinking into their heads that Shawn was not human anymore. Shawn hated awkward situations.

"Soooo…." He over enunciated, "What did you hand me the gun for if it wouldn't slow him down much?"

"The gun is full of silver bullets." Mick clarified.

"You know that's for werewolves right?" Shawn scoffed, "Oh man, does he have werewolf body guards that I never noticed. That is not fair. Gus! Make a note that we need werewolf bodyguards at the office door." He continued sarcastically raising his fist for a bump from Gus.

"You know that's right!" Gus returned the bump.

Mick looked at Henry, "Are they always like this?"

"Always." Henry stood with his arms crossed.

Shaking his head, Mick returned to the plan. "Shawn, you are going to run protection for Henry and Gus. Make sure they get the hostages out safely. If anything happens to me I want you to run. Take your friends and family and go. Don't be a hero."

"Isn't he going to know we are there? Won't he smell you as soon as you go inside?" Gus pointed out.

Shawn put his hands to his head and tried to picture the inside of the warehouse. It was almost empty except that there was a freezer in almost the middle of the room next to a wall. There was a hallway that went behind the freezer though, and the only reason they would need a hallway there was if…

"There is a back door!" Shawn exclaimed. "If Mick goes in the front door, we can sneak in the back and grab Lassie and Jules."

"But what about Mick? Won't he be able to tell you are there the second you get in?" Mick could see Gus was pretty smart.

"He is going to know I am there no matter what. It is just keeping him from realizing you are there too that will be the issue." Gus nodded at Mick's answer. "Great. If all goes well I should be able to take him out. You know what to do if it doesn't go well." Mick looked solemn. The group headed quietly the rest of the way to the warehouse.

Before splitting up, Shawn gave Mick a light sock in the shoulder. "Dude, be careful. I have your back." He started to follow Henry and Gus to the back of the warehouse but he stopped and turned around. "And… thanks."

Mick nodded giving a half smile. He headed to the front door, his hand poised on the knob.

* * *

Aaron was getting impatient. It had already been an hour since the two detectives showed up. He figured their presence had to have been missed by now. Aaron started to think he had overestimated the detective's importance to Shawn. "She really could actually just be a co-worker and not his girlfriend." He thought.

Juliet looked up to see Aaron pacing. Carlton was still unresponsive a little ways away from her but she could see he was still breathing. Juliet couldn't say she didn't understand Aaron's impatience. "Where is everyone?" She wondered. They knew she was here and she had never had the chance to check back with anyone.

As Aaron got more impatient he started acting more aggressively. Randomly growling and kicking any loose objects scattered on the floor. He almost kicked the stake that had been shoved in his and Shawn's chest but he stopped and picked it up. He might need it for when Shawn showed up… if he showed up.

"Maybe I need to go get him." Aaron said aloud and crouched down to look at Juliet. "He might not come for you after all. Such a shame." He smiled at the hurt in Juliet's eyes.

Realizing Aaron was getting pleasure from hurting her feelings, Juliet took a deep breath and set her jaw. She looked up to say something insulting but instead saw Aaron stand up straight and growl.

Aaron smelled vampire, but it wasn't Shawn. He had caught this scent before in the hospital. Looking around he saw the front door of the warehouse was open. He concentrated and sniffed, looking up a moment too late.

Mick had climbed into the rafters immediately after entering. He leaped at Aaron and tackled him to the floor. With a snarl Aaron's fangs grew and he kicked Mick over his head and off of him. Rolling to his feet Mick drew out his large knife. The vampires circled each other.

"How did you find me?" Aaron asked while looking for an opening in Mick's defenses.

"Shawn told me exactly where you were… before I chopped his head off." Mick lied, brandishing his knife. "He attacked a cop at the station so I had to."

"NO!" A heart breaking scream erupted from Juliet followed by panic stricken sobs. Mick's eyes flicked towards her in a silent apology. He couldn't even imagine what his girlfriend Beth would do if she thought he had died.

Aaron hissed. "You lie! I would know if he was dead."

Mick smirked, trying to get Aaron angry. "You give yourself too much credit. You may be old but you are a pathetic vampire."

Aaron couldn't take any more. With a roar he charged Mick and easily ducked under the swipe of his knife. Aaron might not be much of a fighter, but he knew he was extremely fast for a vampire.

After a few more failed swipes with the blade, Mick rammed his shoulder onto Aaron which sent both of them tumbling to the floor. Shaking the dizziness away he barely had time to look up before seeing a boot kick him in the face. Dazed for a moment and laying on his back, Mick wondered where the heck his wing-man was. Weren't they supposed to be almost right behind him?

* * *

Shawn, Henry and Gus peeked around the corner of the freezer at the fighting Mick and Aaron. They had finally been able to pick the lock on the back door with Henry's trusty knife and a metal spring from Gus' pharmaceutical badge he kept in his pocket. It had taken both Henry and Gus to even slow Shawn down when he caught sight of Juliet crying and handcuffed and Carlton's still and bloody form.

"Shawn!" Gus grunted holding one of his friend's legs. "Remember the plan!"

"Kid stop! This isn't going to help them!" Henry reasoned with his son.

Finally, Shawn gave in and allowed himself to be dragged back behind the freezer before Aaron saw him.

Watching Mick and Aaron fall to the floor they decided it was time to grab the hostages and get them out. Before anyone could move Aaron got to his feet and pulled out a wooden stake from his coat.

They heard Mick exclaim, "Aw crap!" a moment before it was pushed through his heart.

Shawn had wanted to scream in frustration. They had not even gotten close to grabbing their friends.

"We need a distraction." Henry mouthed.

Gus turned to Shawn and whispered._ "Shawn, you are faster, you grab them. I will distract him."_

_ "I can hold him off longer you go." _Shawn insisted.

_"I can pull my Sookie line."_

_ "Your Sookie line? I let you do it last time. It doesn't make it yours!"_

_ "You can't say it as well as I can Shawn!"_

_ "Jules is my girlfriend, it wouldn't make sense if you said it!"_

Shawn and Gus continued to argue. Each man fervently whispering their case. Before Henry could get fed up and put a stop to their bickering, Shawn got the last word.

_"I'm the vampire!"_

Gus tisked in defeat and fell back behind Shawn. "Let me get him turned away from you before you get them." Gus and Henry nodded.

Taking a deep breath Shawn popped out from behind the freezer just in time to see Aaron raising Mick's knife to sever the prone man's head.

"HEY!" Shawn shouted to get his attention. Aaron looked back with a shocked expression, knife still raised. Shawn gave a loud growl as his eyes changed and his fangs extended. "Juliet, is mine!"

"Shawn!" Juliet's jaw dropped. This couldn't be happening, she had seen her boyfriend's face change right in front of her eyes. Years ago, Shawn said he would never do anything to intentionally hurt her. She knew this was not a joke. Her boyfriend was a vampire.

Aaron lowered his arm as Shawn walked in a circle to get Aaron's back to Gus and Henry. "I see your chest healed up, mine too." Shawn pointed to his heart. Looking in Mick's direction he stated. "You sure do have issues with sticking people with wooden objects."

"Run!" Mick managed to get out. His eyes stared upward towards the ceiling, unable to move them.

Aaron looked at Shawn with a mixture of emotions, not unlike the look Henry had given him less than twenty minutes ago right before hugging him. "Shawn, you came back to me."

"God no!" Shawn said disgustedly. "I came back for Jules and Lassie."

"You have to come with me… no one else with understand you." Aaron pleaded.

"I'm a psychic. I am used to people not understanding me…" Shawn saw Gus and Henry sneaking towards Juliet. Aaron heard their footfalls and started to turn.

"OH! Ow! It burns!" Shawn exclaimed shutting his eyes and putting one hand to his head and using the other to grope blindly in front of him. Aaron's attention immediately shifted back to Shawn who was falling to his knees in theatrics. "I can see it now! Your house burned down. You barely made it out alive." Shawn pointed at Aaron, "All your family was gone! It would have driven anyone crazy."

"You can't know that!" Aaron's eyes widened. "How do you know that!"

Shaking his head Shawn continued, "You lost almost everything and had to start over. You had some medical background so you decided to apply for a job at a hospital, where you could get as much blood as you needed and could work nights."

"Shut up." Aaron pointed the knife at Shawn. He didn't want to hear about his past or his lost family.

"Then you started to turn people from the hospitals. In your insane mind you were convinced you were helping people, but the people you helped had no one to guide them so they went crazy themselves from bloodlust. Then they started getting killed by people like Mick, sane vampires needing to hide their secret!" Looking up at Aaron Shawn sneered, "So you finally picked me to latch onto. You figured if you could save me you wouldn't be a complete failure!"

Gus and Henry had finished dragging Juliet away and just needed to get to Carlton, who was right behind Aaron and next to the staked Mick.

"But you are a failure Aaron, in the biggest sense of the word. No one loves you, or needs you. I sure as hell don't." Aaron started to advance at Shawn.

"I should have let you die at the hospital you ungrateful child. I can find more! There are always more! I won't stop either. No one can stop me!" Aaron shouted, his voice echoing off the walls of the warehouse.

"Nice evil genius speech. I wish I could have recorded it, really..." Shawn was pushed backwards into a wall before he could finish by the impact of Aaron's charge. Pain erupted in his gut and spread out with tendrils of agony. Looking down he saw the knife was embedded into his stomach. It hurt worse than the stake had.

"It looks like our dear Mick had this knife made of silver, I don't suppose he told you that silver was poison to us did he?" Aaron twisted the knife, causing a primal scream of pain to erupt from Shawn's throat. Aaron whispered in his ear, "I am going to turn your detective friend you know. Then I will have him drain your girl. I might just make you watch." He pushed the knife deeper. "Or can you already see it psychic?"

Shawn gritted his teeth and opened his eyes. "The only thing I see right now is my best friend about to stake you in the back." A confused look came over Aaron's face an instant before it froze in place as Gus hit him from behind with the stake Mick had given him.

"Humans can't fight vampires my ass!" Gus panted as Aaron fell backwards and Shawn slid to the floor. Gus did a little dance of victory before seeing to his friend.

Shawn grabbed the end of the knife and yanked it out. "Gahh!" Shawn screamed as it exited.

Gus helped Shawn carefully to his feet. Shawn was holding his stomach with one hand and the knife in the other. He looked for Mick and saw his dad pulling the stake out of him.

Aaron was still able to move his arms a bit and he grabbed at Gus' feet. Gus yelped and stepped back. "Shawn, I saved your life." Aaron pleaded

A coldness came across Shawn's features, Gus knew this look. It was the reason he put up with Shawn's antics and jokes and all around immaturity for so many years. Gus had realized if Shawn didn't act like Shawn, he could be one scary man. Cold and calculating, seeing all the information around him Shawn had turned to humor at an early age as a coping mechanism.

As Shawn raised the knife to cut off Aaron's head Gus stopped him. "Shawn!" Shawn's eyes flicked to his friend. "Put it down, it's over. You can let Mick handle it from here." He put his hand over the one with the knife and helped him bring it down to rest at his side.

Nodding, Shawn's features changed back to normal and he slowly moved over to where Henry had Mick sitting and recovering against a wall next to Carlton. They had been afraid to touch him in case he had any broken bones. So far all they could see was some blood pooling around his head.

Juliet came running from around the corner. She stopped and stared in shock at the three injured men on the ground and then spotted Aaron across the room. He was moving weakly but not going anywhere.

"Hey beautiful." Shawn greeted. He saw she had her wrist gripped tightly against her body. "You're hurt?"

"Broken wrist. How is Carlton?" Juliet moved to his side.

Mick pushed himself closer to Carlton's body, his eyes catching the blood on the ground for only a second before moving back to the injured man. He put two fingers on his neck, checking his pulse. He tested it for ten seconds and shook his head. Turning to the group he sighed. "His pulse is getting weaker. I think he is dying."

Juliet gasped and kneeled by her partner. "Carlton! Wake up Carlton!"

"There isn't a lot of blood here." Henry observed, "How can he be dying?"

Noticing a bulge in one of Carlton's sleeves Shawn pulled it up and saw a wrapped bandage on the crook of his arm. He came to a realization and looked at Juliet. "Jules, how much blood did Lassie give me at the hospital?"

"The staff made him stop at three pints. He was told to rest but you know how Carlton is." Juliet rested her hands on Carlton's chest.

Looking desperately at Mick, Shawn asked, "How long does he have? Will an ambulance make it?"

"He doesn't have that long." Seeing the guilt on Shawn's face Mick continued. "There is no way we could have known. It isn't your fault Shawn."

Looking down at Carlton, Shawn knew that the man had given all he could to save him at the hospital. Making a decision Shawn grabbed Gus and his dad, bringing them for a side conference. "Gus…Dad… take Juliet out to the car."

Henry realized what his son planned to do. "Shawn no! You can't…"

"He saved me at the hospital. The least I could do is return the favor." Shawn's eyes pleaded with his dad. "I don't want Jules to see this."

Understanding, Gus nodded and headed over to help Juliet to her feet. "No!" Juliet protested. "I want to stay with him! He's my partner!"

"Juliet, they are doing what they can to help but you have to get off the cold floor and sit somewhere comfortable." Gus ushered her towards the door.

"What about Shawn? He's bleeding!" She looked at Shawn who gave her a feeble smile.

"I'll be fine Jules. Vampire constitution and all. We will talk later ok?" Juliet nodded and finally allowed Gus to lead her out.

Henry put his hand on Shawn's shoulder before following them out. He didn't say anything else. Shawn knew he didn't need to. He walked over to where Mick was kneeling.

"You had to have heard that." Shawn pointed out.

"Sure did. Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? There is no going back for him." Mick explained.

"I have known this man for over six years. He is a walking prick but his heart is in the right place." Carlton was not his most favorite person in the world, but he has been a friend, as much as it pained Shawn to admit it even to himself.

"What about his loved ones? Do you know how they will take it?" Mick didn't know Carlton very well but he did mention a girlfriend at the hospital.

Giving Mick an incredulous look he stated, "His girlfriend is in jail for stealing blood from a blood bank. I am sure it isn't going to be much of a stretch for her."

"Ok, point taken. Next thing is probably going to be hard for you." Mick hated to ask him.

"Just walk me through this. It isn't like I am an expert or anything." He smirked.

"You need blood for this and he needs a bit more taken so he will turn quicker."

"No way! Nope not happening." Shawn knew what Mick was asking.

Mick looked at Shawn accusingly. "Do you want him to die? I thought he was your friend?"

It was as if Mick slapped him in the face. One of the things Shawn cared about most were his friends and this man did save his life on more than one occasion. Ashamed, Shawn nodded his head. "Does it have to be the neck… it seems a bit intimate if you know what I mean."

Mick handed him Carlton's wrist. "This will work just fine."

"Um, just a thought. I am not going to get all mushy or anything towards him right? That would just be weird." Shawn couldn't imagine himself acting like Aaron did towards the detective.

Mick shook his head, "No, that is a bit extreme even for us. You will most likely be more protective of him but your relationship won't change."

Shawn remembered something he overheard Aaron say, "Will I be able to tell if he is in trouble or something? Aaron mentioned that he knew I wasn't dead."

"I have never heard of that type of thing. Josef would be the one to ask. You have to do it now Shawn. I'm sorry I don't have more time to explain this but it has to be your choice."

Rubbing his lip, Shawn closed his eyes and forced his fangs to grow once more. "He can never know it was me Mick. He wouldn't be able to take it. We have to tell him it was Aaron."

Mick nodded he understood. "I will tell you when to stop."

Taking a deep breath, Shawn bit down hard on Carlton's wrist.


	13. All Dogs Go To Heaven, Except for Lassie

**Chapter 13- "All Dogs Go To Heaven, Except Lassie"**

A slow rush of blood passed Shawn's lips. He didn't know how to describe it. The satisfaction he would have felt by feeding was completely drowned out by who he was feeding from, but it did taste different than the bagged blood. He could feel the flow of blood already slowing, and could hear Carlton's breathing become shallower. It was less than a minute when Mick told him to stop.

Letting go immediately, Shawn quickly bit his own arm and shoved it in Carlton's mouth. Mick gave him a surprised look. "I've seen Interview With a Vampire." He shrugged before screaming out as Carlton latched on.

It hurt more than Shawn thought it would, and was a lot scarier. Shawn almost yanked his arm away in surprise but Mick grabbed in and held it in place. Carlton's blue eyes had opened but Shawn could tell he wasn't really seeing anything. "Dude if he chews my arm off you are so donating yours as a replacement!" Shawn winced as Carlton bit down harder.

"This was your idea." Mick smirked, "Why don't you want to let him know you saved his life? At the hospital he seemed to have some respect for you."

Shawn gave a musing smile, "I would say he is my Yang if I didn't already know someone by that name who was crazy as a loon and tried to blow up my mom, but that is as close as I can explain it. We will never see eye to eye, the fact that he is way too tall has nothing to do with it, but we have a respect for each other that neither of us want to admit when we are sober. I know this from experience." Mick could see this was something very hard for Shawn to admit. "The fact is I don't want him to feel like he owes me anything you know?"

Mick nodded, seeming to understand. Glancing down, Mick could see Shawn was still holding his right arm close to him. He moved the arm out of the way and looked closer at Shawn's midsection, which was still bleeding slightly. Mick's smile vanished and he looked at Shawn whose color was almost completely gone. "What happened to your stomach?"

Shawn looked away from Carlton and down at the hole in Mick's shirt and the spreading blood stain. "Oh, sorry about your shirt. Aaron hit me with your knife." Shawn motioned with his head next to him where he had dropped it. "Not the best feeling in the world but I'll heal right?"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Mick uncharacteristically shouted.

"Dude! You just got staked, you are already healed what is the big... OW... deal?" Carlton had adjusted his grip causing Shawn to wince in pain again.

"That knife is silver, it messes with our healing!" Mick was kicking himself for not seeing the wound earlier. Carlton was half turned and Shawn was not going to be able to provide enough blood with his injury.

"So, what do we do? Can I get him off my arm now?" Shawn's vision was starting to blur. He shook his head to clear it but it wasn't helping. "Mick, something is wrong..."

Thinking quickly Mick remembered the blood in his car only a block away. "Stay put! I am going to run and get the blood from my car. Don't stop feeding him." Mick took off at a high rate of speed out the back door. He didn't want to scare the people waiting nervously out front.

Grumbling, Shawn looked back to Carlton. He was no longer trying to rip Shawn's arm off but he was still latched on tight. The pain in his gut increased and he fell over backwards with a loud groan, his arm ripping from Carlton's grasp.

* * *

Mick had not expected everyone to be at his car. "Oh man." he exclaimed as three worried sets of eyes followed his approach. "What are you guys doing here?" Mick asked, not trying to hide his annoyance.

"Carlton has the keys for his car. You left yours open and Juliet needed to sit down." Gus explained.

"What is going on, are Shawn and Carlton ok?" Juliet seemed agitated. Henry and Gus had just started filling her in on what had happened and what Shawn was currently doing.

"Uh yeah, I just stopped by to grab something." Mick slinked around to his trunk and opened it to get to the blood bags. He needed one himself but he only had three. He would need to give Shawn a couple and somehow convince Carlton to have one when he woke up. It was a game of roulette when that happened. It usually depended on how close to death someone was. Apparently Shawn had not been all that close because it had taken him over a day to wake up after he was made a vampire. With any luck Carlton would wake up fairly quickly but Mick had to hurry in case that happened. Tucking them into his jacket pockets he turned to find Henry watching him with a scowl.

"Something's up." Henry whispered angrily at Mick. "Tell me now."

"Your son was stabbed with a silver knife. I didn't realize it before he started to turn Carlton." Mick whispered back. "It is hard on the sire in the best of times to turn someone, he needs blood now to be able to finish." he closed his trunk and turned towards the group. "Shawn doesn't want Carlton to know. He doesn't think he would be able to live with that kind of debt, especially from Shawn."

"He's right, there is no way Lassiter would ever get over being saved by Shawn." Gus agreed.

"For now we have to blame it on Aaron, it is the only way to hide it." Mick sighed. "I am going to get back. When Carlton wakes up he is going to be pretty disoriented and from what I can tell we are going to have some convincing to do so he might be freaked out too."

Everyone jumped when all of a sudden Juliet's radio started to crackle and a voice came through, "This is Detective Carlton Lassiter! Officer down 10-52! I found Shawn Spencer unresponsive and injured!" Carlton named off the address before saying the mandatory, "Over"

Accusatory stares aimed at Mick came from both Gus and Juliet. Mick closed his eyes in an effort to stay calm, "Who all was able to hear that?" He asked.

"Everyone in the station, probably Chief Vick too if she is listening to her scanner." Juliet grabbed her radio out and ran towards the warehouse, holding her injured arm close, with Gus and Henry on her heels. Mick passed them up a few seconds later running full speed wondering what happened to Shawn if Carlton, who was supposed to still be unconscious, was calling for help.

* * *

**Three Minutes earlier:**

Carlton woke with a start gasping for breath. His head hurt badly and he had a weird taste in his mouth. Sitting up with his hand to his head he looked around. He saw the guy that attacked them lying on the ground with something sticking out of his chest, again. "Good riddance." Carlton mumbled. He wiped his mouth and it came back bloody. "Must have bit my lip or tongue when I hit the wall." Carlton rationalized. Eyes widening he remembered Juliet, she was hurt but he didn't see her in the warehouse.

Looking down at his hands they were covered in blood. In fact, he was sitting in a puddle of blood. Bringing his hand closer to his face he sniffed and could have sworn his stomach growled. Looking around him in disbelief he noticed feet with blood soaked Nikes attached to them. Looking behind him he saw Shawn on his back not moving with a gaping stomach wound and bloody hands. "Spencer! What the hell!?" Rising to his knees and putting pressure on the wound he noticed his radio was out of reach. "Damn it! Where is O'Hara!" Deciding he couldn't wait with Shawn in this condition, he chanced a grab at his radio, moving back to Shawn once he had it.

"This is Detective Carlton Lassiter! Officer down 10-52! I found Shawn Spencer unresponsive and injured!" If that didn't bring everyone at the station running he didn't know what would. For being such an annoyance people seemed to really like Shawn. "Why do I always have to save you when you do something stupid Spencer?" He cursed at him, knowing Shawn probably couldn't hear him.

Carlton glanced around and tried to piece together what happened. The last thing he remembered was the man on the ground had been shot at least six times by his gun with no effect. Apparently Shawn had tried to stage some sort of half assed rescue and ended up being hurt as usual. At least he was able to take out the perp first. A voice crackled through the static on his radio. It was Juliet. "Carlton, stay put. Mick will be there in a second. Don't panic!"

Before he could respond Mick rushed in the door and slid to a kneeling stop right next to Shawn. Carlton was still staunching the blood flow from Shawn's wound. "Carlton, how long have you been awake?"

"Less than two minutes." Carlton gave Mick a puzzled look, "How did you get here so fast?"

"Listen, some stuff went down and what I am going to do will seem really weird, but I am going to need you to trust me." Mick took out one of the blood bags, ripped it open with his teeth and started feeding it down Shawn's mouth.

Carlton backed up in disbelieving horror. "What in God's name are you doing St. John?" He got his answer when Shawn's white eyes shot open and grabbed the blood bag out of Mick's hand. Carlton stared open mouthed as Shawn chugged the blood and collapsed back on the ground breathing heavily. Hearing the door open, Carlton and Mick saw Juliet, Gus and Henry enter the front warehouse door.

Carlton instinctively grabbed his gun which was only a couple feet away and reloaded it with the clips from his belt. He pointed it at Mick. "Step away from Spencer!"

"Carlton don't!" Juliet shouted. "He is trying to help!"

"O'Hara are you on drugs!?" Carlton looked disbelievingly at his partner. "He is force feeding him blood!"

Not really knowing how to answer, Juliet just opened her mouth and stood there.

Henry and Gus rushed to Shawn's side. "I'm…" he gasped and nodded, "I'm ok."

Mick handed Shawn a second bag and nodded at him. Shawn took it, realizing he should keep feeding. Mick got up and walked towards Carlton with his arms up. "I told you to trust me. No one is going to hurt anyone here. It has just been a very complicated day and we all would like to get Juliet and Shawn some help. We just need you to put the gun down and come with us."

Shawn, Carlton and Mick suddenly reacted to a sound only they could hear. Mick became more desperate. It was sirens. If police walked in on the scene now it would be disastrous. Vampires required secrecy and with a staked rogue, an injured Shawn and Carlton being ignorant of what he was the secret was about to be blown wide open.

"Juliet, I could use some help here." Mick begged.

Carlton, gun still raised at Mick, watched Juliet as approached. "Carlton please."

The pleading in Juliet's voice cut through his defenses faster than if she would have shouted. With a grumble he lowered his weapon to his side. "What ten kinds of crazy is going on here O'Hara? What is wrong with Shawn's face?"

"That hurts Lassie." Shawn pouted as he tried to raise himself off the floor.

"Uh, Shawn." Gus helped his friend up then pointed to Shawn's eyes and teeth.

"Oh, duh." Shawn exclaimed as he licked his fangs and looked at Carlton. "Mick, dude I think you are just going to have to show him. We don't have much time."

"Show me what? That someone else has bought into your freak show delusions? Gus I can believe but I don't know how you got O'Hara and your father in on this." Carlton holstered his gun and crossed his arms, giving Mick a look that clearly said, "I'm waiting."

Wasting no time, Mick's eyes turned milky and his fangs grew. He let out a screechy hiss for effect. Shawn had to admit, the man was scary when he turned all vampy.

Grabbing for his gun, Carlton pulled it and shot causing everyone around him to flinch. Gus and Shawn both threw up their hands to cover their faces with similar squeaks of surprise.

Mick had been hit in the shoulder. A look of horror was plastered on Carlton's face as Mick literally reached in and pulled out the bullet. His wound, visible from the bullet hole in his shirt, was healing almost instantly.

"Carlton, I can tell you appreciate bluntness so here it goes." Mick walked up to Carlton and put the bullet in his hand. "That man over there, he turned Shawn into a vampire." Mick pointed and Carlton looked at Aaron lying on the ground.

"True story!" Shawn admitted before being elbowed by Gus.

"While you were knocked out Carlton, he did the same to you." Mick let the truth of the words sink in.

"No…" Carlton whispered before looking to Juliet for confirmation. His partner had always been there to watch his back. They had had some spats before, competing over whom had a higher score on the detective exam, lying to him about dating Shawn, but he never once doubted that she had his best interests in mind. So when Carlton saw her sad but determined nod he knew it was true. "How is this even possible?"

"I have been asking myself the same thing all day Lassie." Shawn shook his head in similar disbelief, thinking about the day he had so far.

The sirens were almost to the warehouse. Shawn looked around at the blood and mess in the room and got an idea. "Mick! You need to grab Aaron before the cops get here and stuff him in your car." This earned an "excuse me?" look from Mick. Ignoring it, Shawn continued, "Lassie, go with Mick. I will say you are chasing Aaron after he stabbed me and you shot him. That will give you some more time to talk to Mick about… stuff. Jules…" Shawn paused. Seeing Juliet standing there, so close, made him want to hold her and never let go. He had not had the chance to see how she still felt about him, he really hoped she still loved him. He could tell she was still in shock over what was happening but her police training had kicked in and she had a stoic calm about her that made it hard for him to read her emotions. He really needed to talk to her later, but for now he had to send her away. "Jules, if your wrist doesn't hurt too much, go with them. Lassie needs a buddy to keep him calm right now."

"But Shawn…" Juliet protested before looking at her partner. He looked like he had not changed at all. Still the lanky, awkward man she had known for years that she trusted with her life on a daily basis. She realized Shawn was right and finally nodded her agreement.

Gus, giving Shawn a puzzled look asked, "But what about you Shawn? Lassiter made it pretty clear that you were down for the count when he called out over the radio. How are you going to explain that?"

"Dad and Gus will stay with me while the paramedic's take me to the hospital. If I am not here it will raise too many questions for Lassie. I will have to pretend to be out of it." He looked at his dad and Gus giving them a lopsided grin. "You need to treat me like a crazy person for a while, think you can manage?"

Henry huffed through his nose retorted, "I don't think that will be a problem son."

The sirens stopped and footsteps approached. Shawn mouthed, "GO!" and everyone played their part. Mick grabbed his knife then ran over and grabbed Aaron, hauling him over his shoulder. He then ushered Juliet and Carlton out the back door. Shawn let himself sink to the floor and go limp just as police burst through the front of the warehouse.

* * *

While avoiding the advancing officers, Juliet and Carlton followed Mick the block to his car and watched him clean the items out of his trunk. He then unceremoniously, and none to gently, dumped a groaning Aaron into it before slamming the door. "Ok, that should hold him."

Carlton looked at the locked trunk. "What are you going to do with him?" he asked.

"We have our own laws when it comes to rogues. He has probably caused the death of dozens of people, not including the others he turned who had to be destroyed because they went feral." Mick looked at Carlton and noticed him staring to get antsy. New sounds, sights and smells were probably assaulting him from all angles but he looked like he was trying to remain calm. "Juliet, could you give us one second?" Mick asked.

Nodding, Juliet stepped into the back seat of Mick's car and closed the door. Turning to Carlton, Mick held out the last bag of blood. Carlton looked at it like it was diseased. "I don't want it."

"Detective, listen. Vampires don't have to go around hurting people. Some of us, when volunteers are not available or wanted, exist on bags of blood." He saw Carlton's eyes turn towards Juliet in the car. "You don't have to worry about hurting her. Shawn told me you were a good guy."

"Spencer said that?" Carlton looked at Mick skeptically.

"I believe the word "prick" was used in the same sentence."

Carlton snorted, "That sounds more like him." He paused before adding, "Will he be ok?"

"We will have to go see him later, but right now I need you to take care of yourself. If you are going to need to go to the station to make a statement you are going to be full while doing it." He pushed the blood closer to Carlton.

"What on God's green earth do I do?"

"Trust your instincts." Mick said in a matter of fact voice before taking the cap off the bag and putting it under Carlton's nose. Carlton was already almost covered in blood at this point but it was vampire blood. Human blood was a whole different story and Carlton's reaction to it was almost instantaneous.

"What's happening?" Carlton panicked as an uncomfortable sensation filled his mouth and his vision tunneled to acute accuracy. His eyes focused on the bag in Mick's hand. Far from being disgusted any longer he felt a need so deep in his being that it freaked him out completely. Employing a calming technique he often used he took a few deep breaths through his nose. He closed his eyes and caught a flash of a brown haired young woman. His eyes snapped open and he looked at the blood. "What the hell was that?"

Mick put the blood bag in Carlton's hand as the detective looked at him questioningly. A vampire's senses were so tuned that they were able to literally smell the past. Mick used this skill a lot in his line of work. "Your senses have increased more than you know. You will sometimes get flashes of people or things that have happened if you concentrate enough." Mick made a mental note to make sure Shawn knew some of this stuff too.

Looking at the blood bag in his hand Carlton asked, "So, I just drink this right?" Mick nodded. "Good lord what am I about to do…" Scrunching his face Carlton put the nozzle of the bag to his lips and tipped his head back drinking the blood. He brought the bag down and stared at it for a second.

Mick watched his reaction. "What do you think now?" He asked.

"It needs three creams and four sugars…." Carlton replied before finishing the rest of the bag.

* * *

Even though it was his decision to come back to the hospital, Shawn was not happy. With his erratic behavior at the police station, he was considered to be a danger to others so he was put in an isolation room and was restrained.

"At least the sun won't get to him in there." Gus had pointed out to Henry as they arrived, but Henry knew it took a lot of guts for his son to sacrifice his comfort and freedom for Carlton's sake.

Shawn's stomach injury had healed somewhat by the time they got to the hospital but it was still bleeding a bit. They had taped some gauze around it before locking his arms and legs down again in straps. "C'mon really!?" Shawn shouted but did not struggle as they restrained him.

Chief Karen Vick had showed up about 6am. Both Henry and Gus were sleeping in the waiting room. Shawn demanded that they not sit up and keep an eye on him because he knew his dad and best friend were just as exhausted as he was and there was nothing they could do for him but wait. The Chief let the men sleep and went to Shawn's room, watching him from the door.

She could see he was awake and staring at the ceiling. His nose seemed to twitch and he immediately looked in her direction. Knowing her cover was blown she motioned to the nurse to let her in.

"Mr. Spencer." She greeted formally.

"Chief!" Shawn said enthusiastically. "Did you come to visit me? I am touched."

Chief Vick closed her eyes and tried to speak calmly. Shawn always seemed to elicit strong emotions in her, whether it be pride in his abilities when he solved an unsolvable case, or frustration and anger when he royally screwed up or his antics got out of control.

"Shawn," She said in a calmer voice. "How are you feeling?"

Shawn nodded. "I'm feeling better, the knife to the gut was a real problem but other than that I feel like a new man."

"I took Lassiter, O'Hara, and St. John's statements." She waved the papers that were in her hand. "They all say the same story… you were kidnapped and escaped with another hostage, you returned to the station and found out St. John may have ties to your kidnapper. Fearing the worst you drew him away from people you thought he was going to hurt."

Shawn was surprised at how much truth his friends had told about the situation. He tried to hide it from the Chief but she narrowed her eyes at him as she continued. "You then had an altercation with St. John before realizing he was trying to find and stop your kidnapper, and was not with him. You realized O'Hara and Lassiter may be in trouble so you headed back to the warehouse and found Lassiter knocked out and O'Hara tied up. O'Hara said you fought the kidnapper as Lassiter woke up and St. John was freeing her."

No mention of Gus and his father. "The three of them are probably trying to keep them out of it." Shawn figured.

"After St. John got O'Hara out but before coming back in, Carlton woke to find you bleeding and called in back up and an ambulance before shooting at the kidnapper and chasing him down. Lassiter said he lost him in the dark. What I don't understand Mr. Spencer, is how were your father and Mr. Guster there when you were found?" She lowered the papers to look directly at him.

"Damn." Shawn thought. "I keep forgetting how smart she is." Out loud he said cheerfully, "They were out looking for me after I ran off. They heard Lassie's call over the police radio and were closer than the officers were I guess."

Chief Vick pursed her lips and nodded. She pulled up a chair and sat down by his bedside. "Shawn, Buzz told me what he saw at the police station. When I visited Mr. Strode in his hospital room to see how he was doing after the assault during your abduction, he told me about the conversation you had before your kidnapping." She paused taking another deep breath. Shawn knew where this was going. "What I need to know, and I need an honest answer from you, do you really think that you are a vampire?"

"You know what chief, my head was messed up from being sick and I don't remember much about what happened in the police station…" Shawn started making an excuse but was stopped when Chief Vick put up her hand to silence him.

"Mr. Spencer," Chief Vick went formal on him. "Do you or do you not think that you are a vampire?"

Looking her directly in the eyes, Shawn told her the absolute truth…

"No Chief. I do not _think_ I am a vampire."

"That is good enough for me Shawn. I will have to have a formal psychiatric evaluation done on you before you are allowed to consult for us again but other than that I believe you proved yourself to be quite the hero yesterday." A hint of a smile crossed her features and Shawn grinned back.

"So does that mean I get to have these taken off?" he pulled on the restraints lightly.

Chief Vick raised an eyebrow and stood up. "Good day Mr. Spencer." She said before walking towards the door.

"Uh, Chief…" Shawn said in disbelief as she walked away.

"Chief Vick?" She opened the door.

"KAREN!" Shawn cried desperately as the Chief paused at the door.

"By the way Mr. Spencer… Next time you tell your story you might want to leave out the part where your father and Mr. Guster showed up after listening to the police scanner. It would be really hard for them to beat the officers there when your father's truck was parked at the station all night." With that statement she closed and locked the door behind her, leaving a stunned and humbled Shawn staring after her.


	14. The Future's So Bright

**Chapter 14- "The Future's So Bright..."**

Shawn put his hand to his chin in a contemplative gesture. He turned his head to the side to get a different angled perspective. "Hmmmm…." Shawn put his hands out in front of him, fingers together with thumbs sticking out and looked through them as if to line something up.

"Would you just pick it already Shawn!" Gus blurted impatiently.

Shawn ignored his friend and continued to scrutinize the object in front of him. It was a 1970 Dodge Challenger. Granted it could use some work and Gus didn't think Shawn could handle having a muscle car, but it was perfect. It even had tinted windows. More importantly though, it was in his budget.

Shawn turned to the salesman. "I'll take it. Put it in a gift bag for me and I will pick it up later."

Confused the salesman looked at Gus and said, "Gift bag? But…"

Gus looked at Shawn's grin and rolled his eyes. He turned to the salesman and clarified. "What he means is he will take it now and would like to talk about financing in your office."

Finally someone was speaking the salesman's language. "Oh of course! This way gentlemen." He motioned them towards the building.

"Just one more thing!" Shawn pivoted from looking at the car to looking at the salesman.

"Yes sir?" The salesman asked eagerly.

Looking down at his hands Shawn says, "I …" Shawn put on his new pair of Oakley sunglasses before continuing in a gruff voice. "want it painted green."

* * *

Two hours later Gus and Shawn pulled out of the car lot with their very own company car. It was painted hot green with Psych's logo in white on both doors. Henry had dropped them off at the dealership so they could drive it as soon as they got it. Shawn had never been so proud to own a vehicle.

They pulled up to the police station, Shawn revving the engine obnoxiously. Shaking his head, Gus started to get out but stopped when he realized Shawn had not moved from the driver's seat. Gus knew why his friend was hesitating. It had been a few days since the warehouse and Juliet had not called to talk to Shawn. He had left her at least a dozen messages asking how her wrist was but no replies yet.

"Shawn, you just got to give her some time. She'll come around." Gus saw Shawn barely nod as he got out of the car and joined him walking up the SBPD steps. "Anyway, you have to get this evaluation over with so we can start taking cases again when you get back from your trip."

Mick was having both Shawn and Carlton go to LA for a week starting that night to get a bit more oriented in their new lives and to meet his friend Josef. It a lot of convincing to get Carlton to go but Mick stated that he had his hands full with just one new vampire, let alone two and they would both need help from someone more experienced in "babysitting."

Shawn was at the top of the steps when he heard the shouting. "Damn it rookie you need to watch where you are going!" Shawn and Gus looked at each other and ran into the station. They rounded the corner to the main hallway and skidded to a stop. A rookie cop had just spilled coffee all over Carlton's desk, and he was pissed.

"What kind of idiot runs in a crowded area with a hot cup of coffee?" Carlton hollered angrily at the officer.

This wasn't good. Mick had given them specific instructions to stay as stress free as possible, so of course Carlton went to the police station and returned to work almost immediately. Shawn looked at Gus, "I will catch up to you after my appointment." He then went to run interference and save the poor rookie.

"Hey Lassie!" Shawn jogged up to Carlton and draped an arm around his shoulders leading him away from the confrontation. "Give the kid a break it was an accident."

Carlton closed his eyes and ground his teeth together, figuring it was bad enough that he would have to go away for a week to vampire boot camp but he didn't know if he would be able to take it with Shawn there too.

Shawn, seeing the look on Carlton's face, tried to cheer him up. "C'mon! This is going to be sweet hanging out with Mick! He seems like a cool guy! You two seemed to get along fine."

Carlton could not disagree. Mick had gone out of his way to help them, even giving them the number for someone who specializes in custom freezers so they could sleep. Carlton had tried sleeping in his bed the first day but decided against it after spending four hours staring at the wall.

Shawn's voice shook Carlton out of his thoughts. "Have you talked to Jules at all?"

Carlton sighed. Of course he would want to know about Juliet he reasoned. "I have not really talked to her in the last couple of days since we made our statements. She seems to be avoiding me too."

Shawn remembered what the chief said about the statements. "Oh, thanks for covering for Gus and my dad. It was pretty cool of you."

Carton curled his lip and pointed at Shawn's chest. "Don't expect it again Spencer. You run into a situation like that halfcocked anymore and I will gut you myself." Carlton never wanted to go through anything like that again.

"Well, I am just feeling the love today." Shawn deadpanned. "Anyway Lassifrass," Shawn continued, "I decided to run an errand before I go see the department shrink."

"What is it?" Carlton asked suspiciously.

"Well, we don't want to always have to count on Mick to supply us with blood, so I have decided to see if Woody would be willing to do it. Mick said most of his blood comes from a vampire coroner friend too."

Carlton was impressed. He could tell Shawn had really thought this out and was surprised the slacker wanted to do something on his own.

"Do you want to come with me while I break the news?" Shawn gave Carlton a sly grin.

Carlton frowned and opened his mouth to object but it seemed Shawn's cheerful disposition was contagious today and he gave in. "Alright Spencer, let's go."

Shawn rushed ahead of him down the corridor and did a few surprisingly graceful pirouettes as they approached the coroner's office. This got him some strange looks from a few passing officers until they realized who it was. The officers started to smile but stopped after catching Carlton's glare. "How does he do that?" Carlton wondered.

* * *

It was Woody's first day back. His nose still had a large bandage and both his eyes were black and blue. By the time he got to his office the police had already cleaned up after Buzz and Shawn so Woody was fortunate enough to be able to jump right into his work.

When Woody saw Carlton and Shawn enter the morgue alone he was a bit surprised. Usually it was with Gus, Juliet and sometimes the Chief in tow. Woody and everyone else knew the two only hung out when there was absolutely no other option. Last time was when they were drugged and had to prove Carlton didn't shoot someone, so something was definitely up.

"Guys…" Woody hesitated. "What's going on?"

Shawn gave Woody a serious look, which caused the older man to hang his head like a whipped puppy. He was still feeling guilty about what happened between them at the hospital. "Woody." Shawn said as he stepped forward and opened his arms giving Woody an unexpected bear hug.

Carlton's eyebrows raised and Woody's jaw dropped. "Not that I'm against hugging in general Shawn, but aren't you supposed to be mad at me?"

Shawn broke off the hug and grasped Woody's shoulders. "I just wanted to say thank you dude. Your creepy obsessions saved both my life and Buzz's."

Looking to Carlton for help, Woody saw him only shrug in confusion. Seeing Shawn's grin, Woody returned it and awkwardly said, "Yeah… I don't know what you are talking about."

"The bags of blood you ordered to test my vampire blood." Shawn did air quotes. "They saved me and I just wanted to thank you."

Woody heard what had happened with that and became instantly concerned for Shawn's mental state. "Shawn, don't you have your psychiatric evaluation today? You might not want to mention that part."

"Strode we need a favor." Carlton interrupted.

Looking angrily at Carlton for messing up his reveal Shawn grumbled. "Really Lassie?!"

Woody confused but eager replied, "Yeah, anything. What can I do?"

Having lost the excitement of the moment, Shawn decided to give this one to Carlton and he motioned for him to go ahead. "We need to know if you are able to get more blood if need be."

Cocking his head to one side, Woody thought about it for a second and said, "Well yeah, but why?"

"It's because… uh…" Carlton had expected Shawn to do this part but as he looked over and saw Shawn sitting on the counter giving a slow and smug smile, he knew he had been set up. With one last glare in Shawn's direction Carlton turned back to a waiting Woody.

"It's because we are vampires ok!" Carlton snapped.

Woody looked at Shawn and saw him smiling. Thinking this was a joke he shook his finger at Carlton while shaking his head. "Good one guys! You got me!" Woody chuckled. "Did you lose a bet with Shawn detective?"

Shawn knew this was going to be good. If he had learned anything about Carlton in six years it was these two things: The man had a very limited sense of humor, and he hated being laughed at.

Woody's eyes widened as Carlton slammed his hand on the metal exam table. His teeth growing, his eyes changing and his complexion going pale. He growled at the frightened coroner. "Strode you are about two seconds from being a body on this table yourself!"

Woody backed into a tray knocking a few surgical tools to the ground. From his perch on the counter Shawn grinned. "Best… reveal… ever!" he exclaimed before hopping down. Shawn patted Carlton on the back. "Ok buddy, tone it down a notch. You are scaring the poor man! It got this."

Pursing his lips and turning away, Carlton mumbled, "Fine."

"Sorry about that Woods but we had to get you to believe us." Shawn apologized.

"What happened?" The fear in his voice made Shawn feel a little bad but it was expected given the circumstances.

Shawn pointed at Woody's injured head. "The guy that broke your face and kidnapped me… he was a vampire. That is how he hit you so hard. How is your face by the way?"

"Wait, you are saying the reason I was hit across the room was because it was a super strong vampire?"

"Yes." Shawn wondered where Woody was going with this.

"So it wasn't because I am a weak old man who can't take a hit?" Woody asked hopefully.

Shawn nodded, getting it now. Woody's pride was injured worse than his face was. "Yeah Woods! You took that hit like a man! You got cheap-shotted by a vampire and lived to tell the tale!"

That statement made Woody's day. Getting back to the matter at hand Woody clarified, "So, you guys are going to need me to supply you with blood? Doesn't that make me your minion?"

"You look way too happy at that prospect Strode." Carlton stated. "No minions! We will pay you. Just make sure you set it up so we have a good supply to start out."

Shawn could tell Carlton was nervous of running out and possibly hurting someone. He had not had the pleasure of the forced character building exercise that Shawn had had. Shawn wasn't worried because he knew it would take a lot to make him bite someone and NEVER someone he cared about.

Looking a bit disappointed at not being considered a minion, Woody nodded. "I can see how much it would cost and maybe when I get a fresh corpse I could get you some blood myself. The bodies need to be drained anyway." Carlton almost turned green in disgust at the concept of feeding from corpses. Woody gave him a creepy smile. Revenge was sweet.

Shawn glanced at his watch. "Oh man! I'm late for my appointment!" he groaned. "See you tonight Lassie, be here for pick up." Shawn went to run out of the doors and stopped. Turning around to point at Woody. "You'll always be my minion buddy!" he quipped and ran down the hall.

Carlton turned to follow him before remembering something he had to tell the coroner as well. "If you tell anyone about this Strode I will personally tell the Chief about the time you took some extra pictures of that murdered model and posted them online."

Woody's mouth formed a small O of surprise. Recovering from the surprise that the detective knew about that he shouted, "That was for medical research!" as Carlton walked away.

* * *

Juliet sat at her desk looking over files to keep her mind off the events of the week. It was hard for her to write due to the cast on her right hand so that Chief was having her sort and alphabetize forms. She looked up from her repetitive task and noticed Carlton come up the stairs from the sub-basement. He didn't seem any different. It was hard to not instinctively act comfortable around him but other than a couple questions about work they had not talked and it surprised her how much that hurt.

Then there was Shawn. He had to have called her twenty times in the last day alone. She eventually had to shut off her phone. Juliet sighed and laid her head on the desk. She knew what happened was not his fault but it was hard to process. The fact that vampires really existed would have been a lot to deal with, but the fact that the two most important men in her life had been turned into one was too much for her to take right now. That is why she was avoiding her boyfriend she realized.

Juliet didn't notice how lost in thought she was until she looked at the clock and it said that it was after noon. She leaned back in her chair, deciding to take her lunch break when she saw Shawn emerge from one of the offices. He was followed by Doug Devette the long time department psychologist. They shook hands and Doug went back in his office. Henry had tried to get him to do an intervention for Shawn once but it had backfired badly.

Shawn stood for a moment with his hands in his pockets before picking up on a familiar scent. Looking to his left he saw Juliet staring at him. Pouting, Shawn approached her desk. "Hey Jules."

Juliet tried to look busy but Shawn noticed a coffee dribble on the top paper of her pile, then he noticed the coffee in her cup was completely gone. He deduced she was just stalling so she wouldn't have to talk to him, those papers had not been touched in a while.

"I got a car today." Shawn blurted out hoping to get some reaction out of her.

"Oh," Juliet exclaimed trying to sound up beat. "That is nice."

Disappointed, Shawn sighed. "Look Jules, can we go talk somewhere private? I have some stuff I have to tell you."

Juliet was about to answer when Chief Vick walked up while looking down at some paperwork in her hand. "O'Hara could you come to my office…" The Chief looked up and saw Shawn was standing right there. He looked at her desperately, widening his eyes in a pleading hint that she immediately got. "…in ten minutes. I want to talk to you."

"Sure Chief." Juliet agreed. Looking at Shawn she stood up and motioned him into the nearest interrogation room.

Sitting down on opposite sides of the table facing each other, it was a good minute or so before Juliet spoke. "I'm sorry I have been avoiding you Shawn." Juliet admitted. "I have just had a lot to deal with and I am trying to keep things as uncomplicated as possible until I sort them out."

"Sorry to be such a complication to your life Jules. I wasn't expecting you to be ok with everything that happened right away but I didn't think you would shut me out completely." Shawn complained.

"Shawn! This is a lot to take in!" Juliet raised her voice. "I mean, what would you do if I suddenly turned into a vampire?"

Shawn rubbed the back of his neck, "I wouldn't shut you out. I love you too much for that."

That one hurt. "I love you too Shawn but I can't do this right now." Juliet got up and started to walk away.

Shawn opened his mouth in shock. Mick had told Shawn that this might happen but he didn't want to believe him. Mick also told him about the time he almost lost his own girlfriend Beth. They had a fight over whether it would work between a human and vampire. Mick had said he didn't want to give up on her and she asked him what she was wearing when they first met. He had memorized it all, down to her bare feet. When asked why he remembered that, Mick had said it was because he loved her. They had been together ever since.

Of course, Shawn could remember completely what Juliet was wearing when they first met. "Jules wait!" Shawn stood and walked over to her. Putting his hand to his temple and closing his eyes he said, "I remember what you were wearing when I saw you for the first time." Juliet turned and faced him. He at least had her attention. "You were wearing a salmon colored button up blouse with white lace on the sleeves, a knee length navy blue skirt, and army green slip on heels. They were covered in cat hair at the time but that isn't important now." He opened his eyes and saw she had tears in hers.

"How do you remember that?" She asked her hand over her mouth.

All he had to say was what she wanted to hear, that he remembered it because he loved her, but that wouldn't be true. He loved her with all his heart but it was not the true answer to her question.

Rubbing his lip nervously, Shawn took a deep breath, "I know that because I remember… everything."

Juliet gave him a puzzled look. "What's that mean Shawn?"

"It means I am not a psychic Jules." Shawn said quietly.

Juliet walked past him and sat down in the chair. Taking a shaky breath Shawn followed her and pulled the chair from around the table so he could sit directly in front of her. "Eidetic memory, photographic memory, whatever you want to call it that is what I have. Imagine Rain Man but without the mentally challenged part. Everything I have done, every case I solved or psychic vision I have had all started because of a misunderstanding and split second dumb decision to pretend to be a psychic."

"Why are you telling me this now? Don't you think I have enough to deal with?" Juliet fumed.

"I'm telling you this because if I am expecting you to be ok with me being a vampire, I have to expect you to be ok with me not being a real psychic." He grabbed her injured hand delicately. "I have not been having the easiest time either Jules." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "I have been faced with the prospect of having everyone I care about see me as a monster, not to mention the guilt I feel for doing the same thing to Lassie. Now you probably will never speak to me again." Shawn gave a huffing sigh. "I never wanted any of this to happen, but I want you to know how much I care about you by giving you the one thing you value most, the truth." He looked down at his lap. Juliet saw a tear slide down his cheek.

With her good arm, Juliet lifted his face to meet hers. His eyes had changed to a vampiric white which was an indicator of how much stress he was under right now. "You are a good _man_ Shawn Spencer." Shawn let out something between a chuckle and a sob as she emphasized the word "man." "As mad as I am about you lying to me it doesn't change that fact. You have saved my life more than once and I still hold to the promise that when the time comes, I will save you right back."

Avoiding her injured wrist Shawn pulled her into a passionate kiss. It wasn't like their first kiss as a couple, where they almost tried to devour each other on the spot. It was deeper than that, an understanding that no matter what happened or came between them somehow things could still work out.

After they separated and sat back down in their chairs Shawn remembered he needed to tell her about the trip. "Jules, I wanted to tell you that Mick invited Lassie and I to go to LA for a week to get some vampire training. Lassie calls it boot camp which fits I suppose."

A sad look came over Juliet's features. "You are going to be gone a week?"

Shawn gave a wry chuckle, "You sound like Gus. I managed to talk Mick into letting him come visit after a few days. Maybe you could get together with Mick's girlfriend and see some sights. I hear they have really good hot dog stands there."

"You are a vampire and you still think about food. Why am I not surprised?" Shawn could tell Juliet's exasperation was mostly for show. "I should get to the Chief's office. She said she needed to talk to me. Call me?" Juliet asked as she stood. "We have a lot to talk about."

"As long as you don't turn your phone off this time." Shawn stood as well before giving Juliet another kiss. Their hands were the last thing to part as Juliet walked out of the room.

Before leaving Shawn wiped his eyes and checked his reflection. All normal. Taking a deep breath he emerged into the familiar bustle of activity that was the SBPD. He needed to find Buzz and let him know he had to do a rain check on the cookies he owed him…

* * *

"Do you have everything you need Shawn?" Gus asked. For someone with such a fantastic memory he knew Shawn often forgot the basics when it came to packing.

"Yes mom. I made sure to pack extra underwear." Shawn replied sarcastically. It was almost 10pm and Mick would be arriving any minute. Mick was to pick up Carlton first so Shawn knew he wouldn't be able to call shotgun.

"You are going to call me right? Let me know every cool vampire thing you are able to do?" Shawn smiled at how excited Gus was at the prospect of having a best friend that was a vampire.

"OH!" Shawn exclaimed. "That reminds me! I have a new ringtone for you." Turning towards Gus and pulling out his phone Shawn held it out in front of him while it played Timbuk 3's "The Future's so Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." "Sweet eh?" Shawn gushed as he bounced to the tune.

Gus smiled at the film reference for, "My Best Friend's a Vampire." Until he realized something. "You having that ringtone for me doesn't make sense Shawn. If anything that should be your ringtone on my phone!"

Shawn scoffed at his friend's logic. "Don't be a dirty shag carpet Gus. You are jealous just because I thought of it first!"

They were still arguing when they heard Mick honk the horn from outside the office. It was time for Shawn to go. Both men stood uncomfortably for a second before Gus gave Shawn a brotherly hug.

"I promise I will call you, but when I come back don't be surprised when I am highly trained badass vampire. Whaaat!" Shawn raised his fist.

"You know that's right." Gus returned the bump.

Picking up his back pack Shawn dug in it and grabbed a package before slinging it over his shoulder. "I got something for you. Kind of a present. It is even your favorite color." He tossed the soft bundle to Gus and hurried out the door to the waiting car.

Touched by Shawn's sentiment Gus unwrapped the package. Shawn knew his favorite color was purple and by the looks of it he had gotten him a shirt. Gus' smile fell when he lifted it out of the wrappings. It was a freshly washed women's purple hoodie with a sewn up slash through glittery words that said "SEXY."

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU SHAWN!" Gus shouted knowing his friend could probably hear him.


	15. Shawn vs Eternity

**Chapter 15- "Shawn vs. Eternity"**

The two hour car ride to LA was one of the longest two hours in Shawn's life. He was bursting with excitement. Even Carlton was not in a bad mood. He was almost cheery and didn't even yell at Shawn to sit still in the car.

As they pulled up in front of Josef's house, which was actually a skyscraper, Mick explained that Josef owned the whole building. "He lives here on the top floor, the rest of the building is his office."

Shawn leaned forward from the back seat to see the height of the building better. He whistled, impressed. Unfortunately he whistled right by Carlton's ear.

"Spencer watch it!" Carlton flinched away. He was still having trouble getting used to his heightened senses.

"Sorry to ruin your good mood Lassie. What is the deal anyway? Did you get to shoot someone today?" Shawn prodded.

"Mind your own business Spencer." Carlton grumbled. "Why are you so impressed anyway? It is just a skyscraper."

"I just wish when I am Josef's age I can afford my own incredibly large skyscraper. Heck, when I am his age buildings will probably be a thing of the past and we will all live in eco-friendly domes." Shawn fantasized.

Hiding a laugh by clearing his throat, Mick got out of the car and the other two men followed suit. The door man recognized Mick immediately and let them right in. The lobby seemed to have a very modern and metallic style. Shawn smirked when he saw Carlton's eyes look around the room and widen.

One elevator ride later and they were at Josef's penthouse. It was decorated in a lot of black, silvers and reds. Mick, as if knowing what they were thinking, commented, "Red is his favorite color, go figure." Everything looked rather new because a few years ago someone tried to assassinate Josef and most of the penthouse had been blown up.

While taking in the décor, Shawn squinted and noticed bullet holes in some of the walls and small slivers of shattered glass wedged in the carpet. "I guess that is left over from the shootout." Shawn stated and pointed. It had sounded pretty nasty over the phone.

Carlton noticed the bullet holes and looked closer. "These holes are from 40 caliber bullet. Those are usually police or government issue."

"Uh, Lassie." Shawn held up a small dart with a red feathered tuft on the end. "Who the heck uses a dart gun alongside a 40 cal?"

"You guys going to come in or stare at the wall all day?" A slightly impatient voice sounded from the next room.

Mick gave a knowing smile and ushered them into the living room. Two men were sitting on what looked like a brand new couch. They rose as the trio entered. One was thin and around 6 feet tall. He looked to be in his mid 20's with short brown hair and a clean shaven face. The other man was a bit of a contrast to him. He was about Shawn's height and age. He had short dark brown, almost black hair and a matching mustache and beard. His eyes were dead ringers for Carlton's, bright blue ones. He also had a tan complexion that showed his Hispanic roots. He looked incredibly apprehensive but Shawn and Carlton could both tell that the man had some training to keep what was obviously an excitable personality in check.

The younger man stepped forward to shake Carlton's hand, and Mick introduced him. "This is Josef Kostan. He will be helping me train you three this week and hopefully get you comfortable with the situation you guys found yourselves in."

Carlton was a bit taken aback by how young Josef looked. He realized vampires didn't age but he never expected to be learning from someone who looked almost fifteen years younger than he did.

The man next to Josef shook Shawn's hand and introduced himself. "Hey there, Grimes, Morgan Grimes. You can just call me Morgan… or Grimes… which ever you like."

"Shawn Spencer, Head Psychic of the SBPD." Shawn replied using his usual title.

Carlton leaned forward and shook Morgan's hand. "Carlton Lassiter, Head Detective of the Santa Barbara Police Department."

"Wow, you guys are both cops? That is cool. My friends and I are kind of in the law enforcement business." Morgan beamed. "We own a private security and weapons company."

Rolling his eyes Carlton asked, "What security company is that and how much does it cost to run out of your parent's basement?"

Glaring at Carlton's rudeness Shawn draped his arm around Morgan's shoulder. "Don't mind Lassie here. He just gets cranky when he is up past his nap time." Looking at Carlton he continued. "You know technically we are all blood brothers now? Isn't that kind of sweet?"

"Do not ever call me your brother ever again Spencer." Carlton turned away to go join Mick and Josef, who were talking while everyone else got acquainted.

"He seems pretty intimidating." Morgan pointed out.

Shawn snorted. "He is a big softy once you get to know him, and get him drunk. Can we even get drunk?"

Morgan laughed. He was relieved he felt comfortable around Shawn at least. "Carlton will have to meet my associate Casey sometime." He told Shawn. "They will either hit it off or kill each other." The statement made Shawn snicker.

"So how did you have the pleasure of meeting Aaron?" Shawn asked, curious about whether Morgan had been targeted specifically or like Shawn, had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"My friends and I were on a mi…" Morgan hesitated and it didn't go unnoticed by Shawn. "We were testing out a new weapon. It misfired and shot me in the torso a few times and I had to be airlifted to the hospital in LA. While I am on life support this doctor walks in and changes the blood pack I was hooked up to. I was pretty out of it so I don't remember much except burning pain after he left. I woke up and was completely healed." Morgan spread his arms out for dramatic effect. "Apparently, Josef had other instances like this and was watching for more. He realized what happened to me and got me out of the hospital."

"So, your friends are the ones who shot up the place?" Shawn assumed.

"Uh, yeah. My friends are pretty protective of each other and when I went missing it took them a bit to find me. When they did I tried to tell them what happened but, they thought I was crazy and Josef did something to me, so they decided to try and kidnap me back. It's a long story."

Patting Morgan on the back good naturedly, Shawn stated. "Same here dude. Long story…"

* * *

After Josef finished talking with Mick he turned and addressed the group. "Ok, now that we are all introduced, I promised Mick I would hang around for a couple of days to help you guys out but I can't stay around the whole week. I am a very busy man as you can guess, but I will still meet with each of you individually for some questions. Do any of you have any questions to ask right now?"

Carlton was the first to ask a question that all three of the men were wondering. "Why are you guys doing this for us? Not that I am complaining or anything, but what do you guys get out of this?"

"Look, I am not usually such a touchy feely guy but you guys never asked for this, it was forced upon you. It also seems like you are all pretty good guys. Mick can vouch for you two." Josef pointed to Carlton and Shawn, "… and I can vouch for Morgan."

Mick chimed in, "We just want to make sure you have a good head start. Being a vampire is not easy and requires a lot of secrecy for our safety. If we leave you untrained and you blow our cover it is as much our fault as it is yours."

Carlton nodded, satisfied with the answer. He understood how dangerous it was when someone lacked the right training. Shawn's incompetence reminded him of that all the time.

"Any other questions?" Mick asked and noticed Morgan had raised his hand shyly.

"Yeah, not to be the pervert of the group or anything, but I have a girlfriend. I don't know about these guys but I would like to know if we can still… ya know." Morgan raised his eyebrows signifying the innuendo. Shawn and Carlton also listened intently for the answer.

"Ok Mick," Josef said passing the buck. "You will field all vampiric birds and bees questions from here on out."

"Yeah thanks." Mick looked a bit uncomfortable but he had already been expecting this question. "Guys, we are undead… not dead. Our bodies work the same as before. We breathe, our hearts beat, we can eat if we want to…" Mick paused as Shawn let out a loud, "YES!" before continuing, "… and we can make love. We just cannot have children."

As Mick's words sunk in Carlton and Morgan looked depressed. Shawn had never really thought about having kids of his own but was a bit saddened to know it wasn't an option anymore.

Josef, not wanting to see grown men cry, decided to break up the moment. "Ok, if no one has any more questions I am going to grab Shawn for a little bit while the two of you go with Mick for some training." He motioned for Shawn to follow him into his study while Mick directed the others to follow him to the gym.

* * *

Josef's office was a large room with bookshelves lining the walls and a spacious desk with a computer perched next to stacks of paperwork. Josef motioned for Shawn to sit before sitting down on the opposite side himself.

"I like the deco but if it were me I would add more cobwebs." Shawn joked.

Josef smiled, "Mick said you were funny."

"I'm flattered. Usually people tell me how boring I am and how little sense of humor I have… oh wait. I was channeling Lassie for a second there." Shawn deadpanned.

"So, Mick also tells me that you say you are a psychic." The doubt in Josef's voice was not hidden.

Shawn leaned back in his chair. "Why is it that vampires are the biggest group of skeptics I have ever met?"

Josef considered the question for a moment and replied, "I guess it is our nature to think that there is nothing weirder than us out there. I can truthfully say though that in over 400 years I have never met a real psychic."

Shawn was starting to get a bit uncomfortable. He could tell that Josef was testing him. His dad had taught him a lot of things but how to pull one over on a very old vampire was not one of them so he changed the subject. "So, you said I get to ask you whatever questions I want right?"

"Yes, that is the deal." Josef nodded.

"Ok, first off, for reference purposes only…How does your girlfriend deal with you being a vampire? Mine kind of avoided me and I wasn't sure if it was a normal reaction or not."

"What makes you think I have a girlfriend?" Josef's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Shawn put his hand to his temple. He had already seen traces of a female presence around the place; a perfume bottle on one of the bookshelves, the unmade bed Shawn caught a glimpse of on the way to the office… and countless other little details he was sure he wouldn't have been able to pick up on a few days earlier. Plus Shawn noticed Josef seemed to brush off relationship questions to Mick.

"I can also sense you have a tough time committing." Shawn opened his eyes and dropped his hand.

Josef stared, trying to figure out how Shawn knew about his relationship. The only other people that knew were Beth and Mick. "She is fine with it. Sometimes it takes a while to work through emotions depending on the person. If your girl hasn't completely run off then I would say you have a pretty good chance of keeping her."

The statement made Shawn feel better but he squirmed in his seat a bit feeling uncharacteristically nervous and his chest started to itch a bit. He tried to ignore it and continued with his questions. "Do we have any weaknesses besides fire and silver?"

"If you are talking garlic and crosses it is a no. We aren't allergic to either. We can be in sunlight for short periods of time but I wouldn't recommend it. Mick said you found that out first hand huh?"

Shawn nodded, "Yeah, I got the crash course."

"Mick also said that you withstood days of starvation and sleeplessness, and still refused to feed on humans. That is either the bravest thing I have seen a new fledgling do… or the dumbest." Josef gave Shawn a stern look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shawn scrunched his face in confusion.

"It means that eventually, you will have to feed on a human to survive. It doesn't mean you have to kill them, but the trick is to not let yourself get to the point where you are out of control. Honestly I don't know how you did it but if you ever do lose control it is SO much worse than drinking a little fresh blood." Josef was used to this conversation. He had this talk with Mick on a weekly basis or whenever he did something stupidly heroic on a case.

Shawn shifted in his chair again. He was starting to feel incredibly uncomfortable and Josef was starting to notice something was up with him. Looking concerned Josef asked, "Shawn what's wrong?"

"Do vampires ever get heartburn?" Shawn asked rubbing his chest a bit. "I didn't think that blood was enough to cause acid reflux."

Josef stood up suddenly and headed towards the door. "I will be right back in a second. Sit tight."

Leaving the office and closing the door, Josef headed for the training room and found Mick putting Carlton and Morgan through what he had asked him to. Both men were lying on the ground with pencil thin stakes in their chests. Mick and Josef had discussed it earlier while everyone else was busy introducing themselves. Shawn had already been through it and Josef personally felt that every vampire should know what it felt like so they would avoid it at any cost. The stakes were smaller so it would hurt less but it still gave them a taste of how horrible it was to be completely helpless.

Keeping his face neutral, Josef asked, "Everything going ok?"

"Yeah." Mick replied with a serious look, "It took a bit of convincing but as soon as I said Shawn had toughed it through already Carlton here was offering to go first."

Josef nodded and looked down at the still forms. "How long ago did you stake them?"

Mick shrugged, "About three minutes."

"Ok, carry on then." Josef turned around and walked mechanically back to the office ignoring his friend's puzzled look. He found Shawn bent over in the chair looking like he was trying not to be sick.

Shawn looked up as Josef entered. "Welcome back. You wouldn't happen to have brought some Maalox or Pepto Bismol would you?"

Josef sat down and folded his hands in front of himself on the desk. He took a deep breath before asking, "So, tell me again how you said that you were psychic?"

Sighing in defeat Shawn figured if he was going to get any real help he might as well come clean. "Dude, I am not really a psychic. I just play one at the SBPD."

Narrowing his eyes Josef looked and listened for any sign Shawn was lying to him. His heartbeat was steady so Josef could only assume it was the truth. "How do you get away with it then? Mick believes you are one from what he saw and if you are working with the police they must believe you too."

"I have what they call a 'perfect recall memory.' I can remember everything I have seen if I try hard enough." Shawn admitted.

Shaking his head in disbelief Josef decided he would humor him. "Ok then, I am going to have to see this for myself." Josef took out a pack of playing cards.

Shawn resigned himself to the fact that this was the only way Josef would believe him, he sat up straighter and paid attention to the cards currently being shuffled. "Make sure to take the jokers out of the deck." Shawn requested. "They creep me out and mess with my memory." Josef could not tell whether he was joking or not, but he did as Shawn asked.

"We will see how far in you can memorize the order of the cards." Josef explained. Pulling one at a time he laid each card down on top of the one before it. Shawn watched until all 52 cards were on the desk in a pile. "Now, let's see how many you can get."

"I will make it easy for you." Shawn stated with a sly smile. "Since the first card you showed me was on the bottom, I will start from the top down." Shawn concentrated and named each of the cards back to Josef in reverse order. When he was done he opened his eyes and saw the awestruck look on Josef's face.

"You could do this when you were human?" Josef could not believe what he just saw.

Shawn cocked his head and started naming off books and their authors. Josef knew each one but held up a hand to stop him after about 20 of them. "What are you doing?"

"I memorized your library while you were gone." Shawn stated matter of factly.

Josef had over 300 books on the wall in his office. After the card stunt he didn't doubt that Shawn could do it. "That is incredible... I need to know something though. Since becoming a vampire have you had any weird feelings, like the one you have in your chest right now?"

"Well, there was this afternoon. I had just left the SBPD and started feeling a bit sad… but I had just had a heart to heart with my woman." Shawn reasoned.

Josef could see where that could happen but he needed some more information. "Mick said you were the one that turned Carlton, not Aaron correct?"

"Wait a minute, aren't I the one who is supposed to be asking you questions?" Shawn complained and gave Josef a suspicious glare. He knew he was keeping something from him.

"I heard you were going to ask me about this anyway. I figured I would mention it first. Mick said you heard Aaron say he would know if you were hurt and you didn't know what it would mean for you and Carlton."

Shawn looked at his hands. "Mick said Aaron was crazy but he was old too so he might have been able to feel something." Shawn raised his head to look directly at Josef. "Have you ever felt anything like that with people you turned?"

Josef shook his head, "Besides turning Mick back into a vampire, I have not turned anyone in a very long time. I wouldn't know if it was because of age or ability. I have to let you know something though Shawn. Earlier I told Mick to do some training with the others while we talked because it was something you have been through already and didn't need to repeat." Josef admitted.

Shawn immediately put his hand to his chest. The pain had gone away a few minutes ago but he realized now what it had to have been. "Oh my God... Mick staked them."

"Yes." Josef nodded.

"And I felt it? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Shawn was starting to panic. Shawn put his head in his hands, forcing himself not to have a nervous breakdown.

"Shawn you need to calm down. I'm trying to help you figure this out ok?" Josef got up and started to pace the room. It helped him think. "Shawn, have you ever heard of ESP?"

"I can't say the Psych office gets that channel." Shawn replied confused.

"No, no. ESP is Extra Sensory Perception. It is another term a lot of people use for being psychic but it is really being able to sense or feel things above the normal." Josef explained. "To a degree, every vampire has a type of ESP compared to humans. Our senses are so heightened we can pick up on sights, smells and sounds that humans could never even dream of so it would make us seem like we knew things we couldn't. If you already had that type of heightened ability before you were a vampire, I cannot even fathom what your senses must be at now." Josef could not hide his interest. "You wouldn't happen to know your IQ would you?"

Far from being excited Shawn let his head fall and smack on the desk. "Great, I was a freak as a human, now I am a freak as a vampire." Shawn moped and looked up at Josef, "… and don't say anything about me just being special. I heard that from my dad my whole childhood as he was teaching me to count hats in a room, pick locks, escape from the trunk of a car and break my thumbs to get out of handcuffs."

"I wish I could help you more." Josef sighed, "I'm stumped too. I will see what Mick and I can research but for now you are just going to have to deal. We'd ask Aaron but he was put to death as soon as he returned to LA."

Shawn stood up, no longer in a question asking mood. "Could you not tell Carlton any of this?" he asked Josef. "He still thinks Aaron turned him and I would like to keep it that way." He turned around to walk out and stopped at the door. "168."

"What?" Josef asked confused at the random number.

"You asked my IQ… it's 168." Shawn repeated before closing the door behind him.

Josef was at a loss. It didn't happen to him often. Here was basically a vampire prodigy who was upset he wouldn't be a normal vampire. "I didn't understand kids today, not at all." He mumbled. Looking at the time, Josef decided it was time to call in Carlton, maybe he would unknowingly shed a bit more light on the situation Shawn was in.

* * *

Carlton sat down in Josef's office. He absentmindedly rubbed his chest where the stake was a half hour ago. Mick had given Carlton some blood afterwards and the wound had healed, but Carlton could honestly say he would never forget the experience of feeling that weak. He didn't know how Shawn had done it without whining about it for days. "The man gets a paper cut and says he has a booboo for Christ's sake!" Carlton thought to himself.

Josef sat down opposite him and Carlton's anxiety stepped up a notch. He had seen what Shawn looked like when he left his chat with Josef. It wasn't often he saw the psychic with the wind knocked out of his sails and any other time Carlton would have gloated over it a bit but Shawn's pained expression stopped him.

Josef sat down at his desk and looked across at the detective. "So, ye of so many titles, what do you prefer to be called?"

"Lassiter is fine with me." Carlton replied, going with a more formal route.

"Alright Lassiter, you know why you are here. Any questions you would like to ask?" Josef leaned back in his chair and folded arms.

"I have one thing I would like to know." Carlton said seriously.

"Wow, your group are really into the whole learn for yourself thing aren't you?" Josef shook his head. "Alright, ask away."

Carlton leaned forward and whispered, "Do we need to ask anyone's permission to turn someone?"

Josef was impressed at how much he was being surprised today. That was not a question he had been expecting from Carlton. "No, you don't really have to ask anyone. You just have to be responsible enough to take the other vampire's well-being and training in your hands. I cannot stress enough how much we have to keep our existence a secret." He gave Carlton a serious look. "This is about a girl isn't it?"

Carlton smiled thinking of Marlowe. "She is the toughest, most beautiful woman in the world."

Josef saw something dangerous in Carlton's eyes, dangerous in his mind anyway. He saw love. Josef was not always a cynic when it came to caring about someone but he lost his true love with a bad turn. She was currently sleeping eternally and agelessly in a home in New York.

Shaking himself from thoughts of his past, Josef asked Carlton, "Have you told her yet?"

Nodding, Carlton replied, "I told her this afternoon what I was. I refuse to keep secrets from her."

"He told her this afternoon…" Josef puzzled to himself. That might explain the emotional blip Shawn had felt. "So, was she ok with this plan? You turning her?"

"I don't think it is any of your business if I don't have to ask your permission." Carlton's face hardened. "I am not one to broadcast my private life."

"Whoa, easy there tiger I was just making sure." Josef saw that Carlton was getting defensive. "As long as you take care of her I have no problem but know this, it will be extremely tempting to turn the ones you love rather than let them go. It is something every vampire eventually has to come to terms with."

Carlton frowned, he had not thought of that. His mother, his sister Lauren, he could lose everyone. He had been having a lot of trouble controlling his emotions lately and this train of thought was not helping. Everything seemed to want to explode out of him and his usual calming techniques were having limited results.

"Is there anything else you wanted to ask me?" Josef doubted he would ask anything else right now due to his anxiety.

Furrowing his brow, Carlton tried to think of anything else he could ask but he figured anything else he really wanted to know would be covered in the week's lessons. "I can't think of anything else to ask. Are we done here?"

Josef nodded, "Yes, you can go. Please send Morgan in would you?"

Carlton gave a sharp nod and left the office to look for Morgan.

* * *

After everyone got to talk to Josef they got a bit of time to relax and chat. Shawn, Mick and Morgan decided to try and get their girlfriends together to come to the city and see if they hit it off. "Beth could help them, it would be like a support group." Mick reasoned.

"Don't forget about Gus. He wanted to stop by too." Shawn didn't know how comfortable Gus would be around a bunch of vampires he didn't know but Shawn had promised him he could visit.

Carlton was feeling a bit left out, seeing how Marlowe would be in jail for at least another three months. He smiled at the memory of her punching him in the face and breaking his nose. She had a wild spirit to her that exited him and brought him out of his shell.

Shawn looked over to Carlton who was sitting alone across the room. He knew Carlton internalized a lot of stuff and used his job to keep himself occupied so he wouldn't have to think about things. Having the week off he would not be able to do that so Shawn figured the trick was to keep him occupied with something else. "Hey Lassie!" Shawn shouted making Carlton jump and glare at him. "You know Mick here has every Steve McQueen movie ever made?" Shawn knew exactly how to bait him.

Carlton's eyes lit up. "Really?" He walked over and joined the group by the fire sitting down next to Mick. "I loved 'The Magnificent Seven!' you know I pretty much grew up on a ranch…"

Shawn grinned at Mick who seemed just as excited to talk to Carlton about his favorite actor. Excusing himself, Shawn walked into the small gym area now dubbed "The Training Room." He saw they were going to have to put up with silver at some point this week. Continuing through to the balcony overlooking the city he stood and stared at the lights shining below him, then looked up to the smaller lights above him.

"So much is going to change." He thought to himself. Then he smirked, "Some things are hopefully going to stay the same." He was remembering Gus' death threat over the purple hoodie. He was able to hear that from all the way in the car with the engine running.

Taking a calming breath he walked back into the penthouse making himself a promise that no matter how many years passed, he would keep his youthful charm. Noticing as he entered the living room that both Mick and Carlton were acting out their favorite movie scenes with Morgan and Josef looking on and laughing, he realized that promise might not be a hard one to keep after all.


	16. Epilogue: Un-Life Goes On

**EPILOGUE: Un-life Goes On**

**Earlier that afternoon:**

The loud buzz signaling the door opening echoed through the visitation area. Carlton winced at the loud sound as well as the random blaring announcements coming over the prison's PA system. The fact that Carlton was incredibly nervous did not help matters either.

He saw Marlowe at the far corner table with a guard standing next to her. Her hair was not braided today. It hung down next to her shoulders, having grown a couple inches from the time she was arrested. Carlton stood and just looked at her for a few minutes. He knew this could be the last time that he saw her and he wanted every second committed to memory.

Marlowe's face lit up as she saw Carlton approach. "Hey lover." She said in a sultry voice.

"Hi Sweet Pea." Carlton greeted her and flashed his badge at the officer standing guard. He jerked his head in a "go away" gesture. Getting the point the officer gave them some space.

"Is there something wrong?" Marlowe could tell that Carlton was upset about something. She had a knack for knowing when something was bothering him, which is something else that Carlton loved about her.

Carlton reached through the tiny holes in the partition so they were able to touch fingers. "Something happened to me Marlowe. I know we promised after everything that happened we would keep no more secrets." Marlowe nodded as Carlton continued. "I was investigating a kidnapping, Spencer was injured and some whack-job abducted him right out of the hospital."

Marlowe gasped. She had not really met Shawn much besides him fingering her in the crime she was now imprisoned for but according to Carlton he was not a bad guy, just a pain in the ass.

"O'Hara and I eventually tracked them to a warehouse where we were ambushed. The guy took an entire bullet clip to the torso and didn't even slow down. I was knocked unconscious and when I woke up…" Carlton faltered.

Marlowe leaned forward and gave Carlton a comforting smile. "It's ok, you can tell me." God he loved this woman.

He tried to start again, "When I woke up, I was told by Spencer and another detective who helped us track him that I was…" he lowered his voice, "A vampire."

Giving Carlton a pained expression and putting her hand to her head in exasperation, Marlowe stated, "It is my brother all over again."

"No! Sweetheart I can prove it." Carlton tried desperately to get her to look at him.

Marlowe, heartbroken, glanced at Carlton and gasped. His irises were a grayish milky white. "There is no way he could have put in contacts that fast!" She thought.

"Please Marlowe, I love you and I need you to believe me that I am the same guy you fell in love with last year. I swear on The Constitution of The United States of America that I am not lying or trying to trick you." Carlton looked at her desperately.

Absentmindedly reaching across the partition to touch his face Marlowe was startled by a harsh whistle and a shout of "NO TOUCHING!" Yanking her hand back quickly she shifted in her chair. "How is this possible?"

She had used his exact words when he had found out that vampires were real. Carlton smiled and concentrated on changing his eyes back to normal, which caused Marlowe to utter a "Wow…." Reaching through the holes in the partition again Carlton heaved a sigh of relief when Marlowe did the same. "I want you to know this doesn't change a thing for how I feel about you." Carlton explained. "I am still crazy in love with you."

Struggling not to cry at how romantic he was, Marlowe replied, "I love you too Carlton and I will…" She stood up and pulled Carlton towards her by yanking his tie. "…for all eternity." She whispered before passionately kissing him. This time… they ignored the whistles.

* * *

**END NOTES: Well. I hope everyone liked it and didn't get too lost on some of the Moonlight parts. I had, and am having, an awesome time writing this series. I am even thinking of doing the Chuck side of the story eventually. :D**

**There is a sequel out called "Out of the Past and Into the Fire", but first I recommend reading "12:04am Wake Up Call" if you want to see the guys going through their training!**


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